Margaret Snape-Kolodzinski, General Chemistry Laboratory Technician, Wins 2007 Chancellor's Citation Award

The chemistry department's good fortune in having excellent support staff was again recognized as Margaret Snape-Kolodzinski, the general chemistry teaching laboratory technician, received one of this year's Chancellor's Citation Awards, which recognize outstanding and exemplary service to the university. Margaret is one of a number of chemistry department recipients of this honor (past recipients include Kathy Tobiassen, Graduate Program Manager, Marvin Ellin, Director of Operations, and Don Taylor, organic chemistry teaching laboratory technician).

This is a copy of her award citation:

If I were running several laboratories serving literally thousands of students I'd want at least a half dozen technicians.   On second thought, given all the volatile chemicals that have to be precisely prepared and properly disposed of, plus the potential emergencies that need to be adroitly addressed, hmmm.....  better make that a full dozen.   But at UMass, all of these duties are the work of one woman, Margaret Snape-Kolodzinski.

One sole preparative technician whose breadth of responsibility and depth of contribution are so equally expansive, it's tough to know where to begin.  As one of her nominator's pointed out: "In most cases the challenge in writing a recommendation is coming up with a compelling list of attributes to include.  But with Margaret the problem lies in what to leave out."  I know the feeling.

Should I skip the fact that on particularly frigid mornings, she arrives at work hours early to warm up temperature sensitive solutions needed for 8 am labs?  Do I just gloss over her ability to foresee potential problems and find the resourceful solutions that have resulted in over 40 new experiments coming off without a hitch?  And what about all the extra-curricular activities Margaret volunteers for such as: The Annual Water Watch Program, Upward Bound, Take Our Daughters To Work Day, and the American Chemical Society's High School Olympiad?

The latter is an annual event that takes place during a time which for most of us is a week of Spring break.  But for Margaret it's days of getting ready to showcase UMass to impressionable science students.  Many of whom end up choosing to enroll here, after seeing first hand how smoothly and efficiently all experiments are prepared and how clean and organized all the lab work areas and materials are maintained.  Rumor has it Margaret even supplies tasty snacks for each of the 200 some High School Olympians.

One testament to Margaret's extraordinary attention to detail that can't be left out, is the telling statistic that in the entire 25 years of her employment at UMass, not one of the myriad duties she's performed for the University has ever been subject to an EHS (Environmental, Health & Safety) violation.    Trust me this is no small feat in light of all that has to be meticulously prepped and laid out for each lab, and the very tight turn around time between the morning and afternoon sessions.

As another of her nominators put it: "It's rare that one finds such a high level of dedication, competence, and industriousness, all packed into the same person who responds calmly to every situation, stays extremely pleasant, and keeps a good sense of humor even when the heat isn't working or water is pouring into our aged laboratories."

Fortunately neither of those calamities prevents me from warmly congratulating Margaret Snape-Kolodzinski on being the next recipient of the 2007 Chancellor's Citation Award.

(5/14/2007)