Loyola University Chicago’s (LUC, https://www.luc.edu/) School of Environmental Sustainability (SES, https://www.luc.edu/sustainability/) invites applications for a full-time Laboratory Manager staff position beginning in March 2025. The SES seeks to diversify its staff and is particularly encouraging historically-marginalized minorities, women, and people with disabilities to apply. We are seeking candidates brimming with initiative to manage laboratory safety and compliance in two shared research labs and two shared teaching labs; support lab course maintenance, inventories, preparation, and clean up; and run, maintain, coordinate, and train others on the analytical instruments in these labs. Technical expertise in maintaining a chemical hygiene plan, chemical inventory management, laboratory safety training, and the use and maintenance of analytical instrumentation are required.  Experiential expertise in measurements of air, water, and soil chemistry including nutrients and pollutants are all desirable.  Preferred applicants will be motivated to advance the SES mission (https://www.luc.edu/sustainability/about/ourmission/). 

Loyola University Chicago is committed to environmental sustainability, having recently attained carbon neutrality and otherwise transformed its campuses to meet energy, water, and waste efficiencies that have consistently ranked the University in the top 10% of green campuses nationally.  The School of Environmental Sustainability (SES) is the newest School at Loyola University Chicago, and is focused on education, research and the practice of environmental sustainability. The new SES currently serves over 400 undergraduate and 105 graduate students and is housed within a state-of-the-art geothermally heated/cooled building complex containing a 3,100 sq ft greenhouse, two aquaponics facilities, a biodiesel production facility, teaching & research labs, an environmental analytical lab, and a green dormitory. The campus prioritizes sustainability with energy efficient LEED certified buildings, permeable pavement, green roof installations, and student-run urban gardens supplying area farmers markets, local businesses, and food pantries. The Loyola University Retreat & Ecology Campus (LUREC) has a 20-acre wetland restoration project and is a venue for three-week summer field courses and for faculty and student research in sustainable agriculture, ecology, and wetland restoration. For more information about SES, please see our website (https://www.luc.edu/sustainability/). 

Duties and Responsibilities 

The School of Environmental Sustainability seeks an engaged and experienced Laboratory Manager to coordinate laboratory teaching activities and research in our shared teaching and research facilities including laboratory safety and compliance, maintaining analytical instrumentation, and training faculty and students on the use of analytical instruments. The position will report directly to the Dean and will work closely with research and teaching faculty. Specific duties of the position include: 

Lab Safety and Compliance – Working directly with the office of the VP for Research to follow all laboratory safety protocols.  Enrolling all PIs and student researchers in annual lab safety training and refresher courses, monitoring laboratory activities for safety compliance, maintaining chemical and biohazardous materials inventories, managing hazmat waste inventories and scheduling waste pick-ups.  Reporting any problems or concerns to the Dean. 

Analytical Instrumentation Maintenance – Maintenance, repair, calibration, and training on over $2.5M of analytical instruments shared by SES researchers for measuring nutrients, and organic contaminants in water, soil, and plant samples. Analytical instrumentation includes a Thermo Scientific HPLC-MS/MS, Agilent GC/MS, Metrohm Ion Chromatograph, Thermo Scientific Carbon Nitrogen Analyzer,  Shimadzu TOC analyzer, various scales, incubators, drying ovens and muffle furnaces.  The Laboratory Manager will manage the schedule and the use of shared instruments for classes and research. 

Managing Shared Laboratory Space – managing shared research and shared teaching labs, keeping track of space utilization, facilitating the use of shared space most efficiently and effectively, implementing standard operating procedures for the use of shared space and instruments, organizing the flow of work in sample processing, maintaining order, cleanliness and safety in all laboratories.  

Managing Teaching Labs – Collaborating with faculty to keep teaching labs clean and well organized, managing the refilling of consumable materials and supplies, keeping lab and field instruments in good working order with extra batteries, reagents, and glassware.  Conducting the ordering of supplies for all faculty using the teaching labs, keeping extra supplies inventoried and stored, and assisting faculty and their undergraduate lab assistants in lab prep and clean up.  

Instrumentation-Use Training – Training of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students on the proper use of instruments in research and how to interpret results.  Conducting analysis of samples for SES faculty PIs and conducting demonstration laboratory analyses for some classes. 

Managing Central Inventory – Establishing and maintaining a central inventory of chemicals, glassware, consumable supplies, commonly used equipment, safety equipment. Coordinating with other department lab managers to share equipment and supplies where appropriate and cost effective.  

Formal Teaching – An option for this position, depending on the candidate’s qualifications, includes teaching an environmental chemistry course with a lab component for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. 

Preferred Qualifications 

The successful candidate will be self directed and hold an advanced degree with 3+ years’ experience or a BS degree with 5+ years’ experience. The degree will be in Analytical Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Chemistry, or a related field. The experience will encompass candidates who have occupied jobs with titles such as laboratory analytical chemist, environmental chemist, environmental chemistry research technician, teaching lab management, or similar. Importantly, the experience will have prepared the successful candidate to manage multiple spaces, multiple instruments, multiple people, and multiple timelines. In addition, the successful candidate must have demonstrated experience with laboratory safety and compliance. 

The following soft skills are important for success in this position.  

The successful candidate will have excellent organizational skills, record keeping and labeling skills, and written & spoken communication skills. They will be able to coordinate laboratory safety practices among multiple faculty and students who are using shared laboratory spaces. Additional soft skills possessed by the successful candidate include developing a service-oriented, helpful, professional and collaborative generosity in working relationships with people from across the SES’s and the University’s organizational structures (both vertically and horizontally) including students, faculty, staff, and University administrators.  In addition, the candidate will be a strong team player for SES, which requires both taking the lead in certain situations and following the lead in others. They will demonstrate reliability, professional conduct, a strong work ethic, and a genuine enthusiasm for high quality, safe research and teaching in environmental sustainability. 

We will begin reviewing applications in mid-January 2025. Candidates can submit their applications here: https://www.careers.luc.edu/postings/30262 

Required operation of university owned vehicles? NO 

Does this position have budgetary accountabilities? NO 

Does this position require direct animal or patient contact? NO 

Physical demands? Lifting, carrying, standing 

Computer Skills? Microsoft Office and proprietary software for analytical instruments 

Reasoning Skills? Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables. 

Supervisory Responsibilities? NO 

What department and positions are supervised by this position? No full or part time staff, however the position includes paid student workers to assist the Lab Manager.