Bauer
puts safety first
By Steve
Carr
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 dont come out. It was the same way at sea
you either put the fire out or you die theres
no place to get off the ship at sea.
You
cant describe it to students. Its 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.
Ive
fallen into every job Ive ever had, said Bauer.
I really love it here. I have fun, the people in the department
are great and I get to play.
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