When it comes to training students and postdoctoral researchers to work safely in academic laboratories, it is hard to overemphasize the importance of the head of the lab—the principal investigator (PI).
“The PI sets the tone for how a lab is going to act and operate,” says Dominick J. Casadonte Jr., a chemistry professor at Texas Tech University. “If the PI is very safety conscious and has safety as a priority, then students and professionals in the lab will also have it as a high priority.”
PIs who do make safety a priority say that their mentoring in this area starts on the day that they accept someone into their labs and continues throughout their advising relationship. Running their labs safely is not just about meeting regulatory requirements, they add—it is about making sure their group members think about their experiments with safety in mind.
Go read the story for the details of how some faculty engage with their group members.