Purpose. Keep the lab running smoothly with clear, lightweight ownership of essential operational tasks, so safety, facilities, equipment, data, and onboarding don’t fall through the cracks and we can stay focused on science.
The roles below rotate among lab members. Most take ~10–30 min/week: weekly (2–5 min) task review, monthly (10–15 min) checklist updates, quarterly (30–60 min) reviews and walkthroughs, and one annual pass (4–6 hours). Every role also proposes one small process improvement a year.
Where the work lives. Current assignments, the shared task tracker, and each role’s handoff page are in the member portal. Each handoff page holds that role’s routine and checklists. Roles are reassigned when a student leaves, and each owner keeps their handoff page current so the next person can run the role from it alone. When a role gives you authority to act (pause unsafe work, restrict equipment, freeze access), you have Dr. Harvey’s backing to use it.
A task is done when all of its parts are complete. If something is blocked for over a week, or immediately if it’s safety- or compliance-critical, tell Christina what happened, what you need, and by when.
The roles at a glance
| Role | What they keep on track |
|---|---|
| Onboarding Officer | New members ramp up fast and safe |
| Safety Officer | No injuries or compliance surprises |
| Facilities & Infrastructure Coordinator | Functional spaces, little downtime |
| Equipment & Experiment Coordinator | Reliable, ready core equipment |
| IT & Data Administrator | Organized, backed-up, reproducible data |
| Communication & Outreach Lead | A sharp, current public face |
| Animal Care Coordinator | Predictable animal welfare and compliance |
| Inventory & Process Improvement Lead | Stocked consumables, steady upgrades |
| Offboarding & Access Control Officer | Smooth, low-risk departures |
Onboarding Officer
Gets new members set up quickly, consistently, and safely.
Owns onboarding checklists and Slack workflow, initial-training coordination, access-request guidance, starter templates.
Can schedule onboarding sessions, request standard access for new members, and require the checklist before independent lab work.
Safety Officer
Keeps safety practices current and visible.
Owns lab walkthroughs, certification tracking, safety docs, chemical acquisition verification.
Can pause unsafe work; require refresher training before re-access.
Facilities & Infrastructure Coordinator
Keeps lab spaces functional with little downtime.
Owns facilities tickets, infrastructure issues (HVAC, trash, access, basic lab environment), room readiness and cleanliness.
Can file facilities requests directly, coordinate repair access, and set limited-access windows for repairs.
Equipment & Experiment Coordinator
Keeps core equipment reliable, safe, and ready so experiments don't stall.
Owns maintenance schedule, calibration reminders, equipment readiness, training-material coordination, maintenance logs.
Can restrict equipment use until training and SOP requirements are met; book maintenance windows on the lab calendar.
IT & Data Administrator
Keeps code and data organized, backed up, and reproducible with minimal friction.
Owns GitHub norms, data-storage structure, backups, permissions, software-license tracking.
Can require a minimum repo and data structure; lock down permissions if data integrity is at risk.
Communication & Outreach Lead
Keeps the lab's public face legible and appealing to collaborators, recruits, and funders, without pulling researchers off their work.
Owns website updates, Instagram post coordination, scripts for tours, outreach events, inclusive-culture events.
Can publish routine updates, request content with deadlines, and set the monthly content schedule.
Animal Care Coordinator
Keeps animal welfare and compliance predictable and reliable.
Owns feeding and monitoring schedules, welfare logs, IACUC reminders, partner coordination.
Can pause animal-related activities if welfare or compliance is at risk; require training before animal handling.
Inventory & Process Improvement Lead
Keeps common consumables stocked and ships small workflow upgrades that cut friction.
Owns inventory tracking, reorder thresholds, small systems improvements, chemical-inventory review.
Can reorder under an agreed threshold or pre-approved list.
Offboarding & Access Control Officer
Keeps departures smooth and low-risk.
Owns offboarding checklist and Slack workflow, access removal, ownership transfer, data-archiving pointers, key and badge returns, exit handoff-packet collection.
Can freeze or remove access after the last day (or as agreed); require the handoff packet before closing offboarding.
Spot something to improve? Anyone in the lab can edit this guide. Edit this page suggest a change how edits work
Last updated