UNM Today


Contact Us
Current Issue
Editorial Policies
Previous Issues
Publication Dates

Subscribe to
email edition


Links

 

Campus News
     

Your faculty and staff news since 1965

Fall 2002 Spotlight Issue
October 28, 2002

Bauer puts safety first

By Steve Carr

Bauer performs at Albuquerque Little Theatre in the 80s.“Everyone happy? Everyone got their goggles on? Good,” barks John Bauer in a gruff voice as he looks in on one of the upper level chemistry labs he oversees.

Bauer, a research technician in the Chemistry Department, considers himself a safety cop of sorts. He handles the organic, physical and instrumental labs within the department.

“My primary concern in here is safety,” said Bauer. “I regard it as my most important function. In the organic lab we commonly get a lot of minor cuts and burns.”

“We also try to keep the building from burning down,” he added with a chuckle.

At the beginning of the semester, Bauer, an Albuquerque-native and graduate of St. Pius X High School, hands out a two-page flyer with lab rules and expectations for students.

His lab practices, and the work of two other lab technicians in the department, Gary Bush and Dan Cano, were recently honored with an Analytical Lab Facility p2 Award for an Upper Division Undergraduate Lab by the City of Albuquerque.

Bauer draws from his experience in a position he held after he was drafted into the U.S. Navy in 1971. He served on the USS Piedmont (AD-17), which is a “destroyer tender” class ship that makes repairs on destroyers.

“The basic firefighting training I went through in the service was actually done as part of boot camp,” said Bauer. “In the field we were in buildings with trenches filled with flammable solvents surrounded by flames. You had one of two choices – put it out or don’t come out. It was the same way at sea – you either put the fire out or you die – there’s no place to get off the ship at sea.

“You can’t describe it to students. It’s very difficult to describe how fast some of these solvents can get out of control. What usually gets their attention is the first fire of the semester,” he said.
Over the years and prior to his current position, Bauer had several job interests that eventually led him to UNM.

He was a photographer for both the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Hobbs News-Sun in the 1970s and 80s. It was during a photo shoot of a local theater groups that Bauer got involved in the theater. He was in more than 40 plays at the Albuquerque Little Theatre and other local theaters. Most recently, he has acted in a few Vortex shows.

“I’ve fallen into every job I’ve ever had,” said Bauer. “I really love it here. I have fun, the people in the department are great and I get to play.”

Back to Spotlight Index