Hi all,
Attached is what was discussed at the Quebec (and guests) NMR Mangers' meeting yesterday. Must of it repeats what has already been mentioned here I think, but may be useful.
Managers at our meeting ranged from a couple of companies that have never closed- but do not have high traffic through their NMR rooms, to several from one institution outside of the problematic Montreal area, which is in the process of reopening, and are currently having all samples run by managers. Some large institutions are waiting to stockpile PPE before even beginning much discussion about reopening. McGill is looking to start to ramp-up very soon, and many protocols and procedures are being developed concurrently- without necessarily knowing what extra materials in terms of cleaning and PPE will be available. Within the Chemistry department all the facility managers have come up with a very secure plan with lots of cleaning, social distancing, limited access and most importantly a strong emphasis (from admin) that no-one is to put themselves, or anyone else, in a position that they are not comfortable with. So if it means that it takes longer to get some instruments up and running than others, research groups will have to adapt.
One point I think I forgot to put in, is that in the case where managers are running samples, we at McGill (and I think most everyone) agreed that if we are running experiments that would normally be run by a user, without any manager assistance, that no fees associated with staff running samples would be charged.
Best wishes,
Tara
*********************************************
Dr. Tara Sprules
QANUC
Quebec/Eastern Canada High Field NMR Facility
www.nmrlab.mcgill.ca
phone: (514) 398-1721
fax: (514) 398-8254
3420 University St., Rm 023
McGill University
Montreal, QC, H3A 2A7
*********************************************
________________________________
From: Kenneth Knott <kknott_at_vt.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 11:32 AM
To: ammrl_at_ammrl.org <ammrl_at_ammrl.org>
Subject: AMMRL: Post pandemic NMR operations
No doubt all universities have begun to consider changes in operations as the restrictions from the pandemic begin to ease. We have been asked to come up with a plan for operation in our NMR facility.
I would be interested in hearing what others have considered or perhaps already put into practice.
In our case, most consideration has revolved around our high throughput robot instruments which handle 90% of sample submissions. At a minimum, all students will be required to wear masks in the lab and put fresh gloves on upon entry. Students will be required to spray down keyboards and instrumentation before and after use. Some things that been considered include:
1) Sample dropoff external to the lab. The samples are run by staff.
2) Limited access. Research groups collect samples daily and 1 designated person per group is allowed access to submit their group's samples.
3) Sample dropoff external to the lab. Samples are loaded by staff. Samples are entered into the NMR software (VnmrJ 4.2) remotely. Not sure how to do that.
For our other, non-robotic, instruments, we already have scheduled access and will limit 1 student at each instrument at any given time. The instruments are sufficiently spread out to allow for social distancing.
Would love to hear more.
Thank you
--
Ken Sharp-Knott
Department of Chemistry
Analytical Services
Virginia Tech
(540)267-6502 (Cell)
(540)231-0885 (Office)
Received on Sat May 09 2020 - 10:45:35 MST