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Joining ATAP in this annual event were Berkeley Lab’s Engineering Division; the Applied Physics and Superconducting Technology Division and the High-Luminosity LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project team at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL); and the Magnet Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). A new addition for 2023 included three SAFE Workshops—guided, experiential learning opportunities focused on physical and psychological safety.
The themes for the 2023 Multi-lab Safety Week were:
- Housekeeping and Completion of On-the-Job Training
- Ongoing Learning and Education
- Seminars on Electrical Safety and Fall Protection
- SAFE @ Berkeley Lab — an experiential learning workshop
Seminars share knowledge, lessons learned, resources
Multilab Safety Week 2023 offered expert seminars on important topics.
On Tuesday, October 3, 2023, Berkeley Lab EHS Division Director Maria Nappi and Subject Matter Experts Ari Harding (Berkeley Lab), David Mertz (Fermilab), and Eric Johannsen (Brookhaven National Laboratory presented “Electrical Safety: Lessons Learned” to an audience of more than 250 from the three national laboratories
On Wednesday, October 4, some 180 attendees learned about “Managing Fall Protection – Working from Heights” from Subject Matter Experts Paul Satti (Fermilab), Kevin Goodwin (Berkeley Lab), and Mike Gaffney (Brookhaven National Laboratory). Slides from both seminars are available.
Introducing the SAFE Workshops
Three SAFE Workshops (September 26, September 27, and October 5) were held as part of 2023 Multi-Lab Safety Week. Joanna Martinez, Sr., leadership development specialist in the learning and culture office at Berkeley Lab, led the workshops, along with facilitators May Estrella from Human Resources and Chris Georgiou, Pat Thomas, and Asmita Patel from ATAP. Eighty attendees from Berkeley Lab, Fermilab, and Brookhaven National Lab, who had prepared for the events with e-learning modules, completed the workshops.
The aims of the SAFE Workshops:
- Creating positive agents of safety and change within the Berkeley Lab community
- Promoting a culture of physical and psychological safety across all areas of the Lab
- Managing safety challenges and implementing key protocols/behaviors
- Assessing safety hazards, risks, and contingencies; problem-solving accordingly
- Fostering constructive team communication and dynamics
Building on their success and popularity, we are exploring the possibility of offering more SAFE Workshops in the future.
Multi-Lab Safety Week closed with a fun trivia game, Not-Jeopardy, on Friday, October 6, 2023. The game allowed some 100 participants to test their safety knowledge, learn more about their sister labs, and brush up on this year’s blockbuster movies — Oppenheimer and Barbie!
Honoring our top achievers
The success of our annual Safety Week is built on an all-hands effort, but each year, some stand out for exceptional dedication and the quality of their contributions. To promote ongoing safety-culture awareness and maintain the momentum of Safety Week, we honor an outstanding individual worker and the top-performing team for exceptional safety and organization efforts.
Individual Award
Yilun Xu, 2023 Multi-Lab Safety Week individual award winner.
Yilun Xu, a research scientist in the Berkeley Accelerator Controls and Instrumentation (BACI) Program, received the individual award, honoring the person most helpful to others in Multi-Lab Safety Week efforts.
His co-workers reported that he more than lived up to his reputation as a dependable year-round contributor to ATAP safety efforts. During this year’s Multi-Lab Safety Week, Yilun went the extra mile cleaning and organizing the Beam Electrodynamics Group (BEG) lab in room 71-170. He also led QUEST (Quality Assurance/Improvement and Environment Safety & Health through Self-Assessment and Teamwork) clean-up and self-assessment efforts for the BACI offices and labs in Building 71.
Team Award
2023 Multi-Lab Safety Week team award winners.
Team honors go to the teams representing the Buildings 46 and 47 offices and shops of the Superconducting Magnet Program for their performance in work-area cleanup and their commitment to workplace safety. Their tasks involved areas where a wide variety of magnet design, fabrication, and testing work is underway. They were selected for this honor by division management after final walkthroughs and reports from all the teams were given.
These honors resulted from pleasantly difficult decisions in assessing the excellent contributions of so many people across the three laboratories. Let’s aim to maintain the momentum on Safety Week’s themes of clean and well-organized workspaces and up-to-date training and have another year of doing great science safely.
To promote ongoing safety-culture awareness and maintain the momentum of Safety Week, we honor an outstanding individual worker and the top-performing team for exceptional safety and organization effort. These honors resulted from pleasantly difficult decisions in assessing the excellent contributions of so many people.
