Joan O’Sullivan, the Environmental Health and Safety Specialist for the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is a 2024-25 David Rainer Memorial Campus Safety Awardee! This award is presented by NC State’s Environmental Health & Safety Department and celebrates safety leadership and best practices displayed by a professional to cultivate a safe working environment within their department.

Ms. O’Sullivan is responsible for monitoring air quality, health and hygiene safety in Engineering Building I, Partners Building I and II. She helps all principal investigators create and update a laboratory safety plan and acts as a liaison between each PI and the NC State EHS office. She conducts random laboratory inspections, recommends corrective actions, and documents all actions. As building liaison, O’Sullivan oversees the security systems to safeguard labs containing biohazards and valuable instrumentation. Several years ago, O’Sullivan and a peer from Materials Science Engineering created a seminar course for first-year graduate students which included lectures and demonstrations on safety-related procedures and best practices; this course has since been further developed and is now a required course for all CBE PhD students. What makes O’Sullivan stand apart is her sincere commitment to her job, her ownership of her responsibilities, and her proactive nature.  She also has a good knowledge of chemicals and best practices and has taken special care to improve the effectiveness of  all CBE laboratories and research operations. 

“Joan has been essential and extremely helpful in making sure that my laboratory complies with all safety requirements and procedures. She is always very responsive and has not only helped my Ph.D. students by also teaching them a great deal about safety, university rules, and expectations. They feel that they can always rely on her for advice and support.” – Prof. Orlin Velev, Frank and Doris Culberson Distinguished Professor

Joan O’Sullivan epitomizes the ideal NC State employee, characterized by her strong work ethic, loyalty, customer-oriented attitude, and can-do approach. She is an incredible addition to the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “Performing research safely has to be our number one priority,” says Prof. Sindee Simon, CBE Department Head and Distinguished Professor, “and Joan plays a large part in helping the faculty and students understand how to implement that priority.” Congratulations, Joan, on this outstanding recognition!