Blaine Baker has received the CAS Stay at Home Hero Award for his extraordinary efforts to maintain departmental operations and safely supporting all our students, staff and faculty. Thank you Blaine for everything that you do for our department!
From the CAS newsletter:
Stay at Home Heroes Award: Blaine Baker
The College of Agricultural Sciences represents a talented, multidisciplinary group of professionals across the entire state of Oregon. During these unpredictable and challenging times, our people continually demonstrate their tenacity, innovation and commitment to our students, our research, and our communities. In recognition of those efforts, we’ve launched the “Stay at Home Hero” award that will honor an individual every week who continually goes above and beyond in serving that commitment. It is open to all College staff and faculty. Nominations are accepted online and reviewed weekly. Recipients will receive a certificate and a gift card.
This week, we are proud to recognize our first Stay at Home Hero: Blaine Baker in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology (BPP).
On a regular day, Blaine is one of the main players in making sure that BPP runs smoothly, but this is even more true during the COVID-19 pandemic. While most of us are safely working from home, Blaine is one of the essential workers who is making sure that BPP and Cordley Hall run smoothly.
- He has organized and maintained the sanitation protocol for BPP so that essential workers who have to come to the building are confident that the common touch surfaces are cleaned regularly.
- He is facilitating the critical and essential operations of shipping and receiving for BPP and its many associated services including the OSU Plant Clinic, Nematode Testing Service, and the Sudden Oak Death Testing Service.
- He is regularly monitoring the building for alarms and warnings associated with temperature control facilities that are needed for long-term maintenance of research projects.
- Finally, he is playing an absolutely critical role in the BPP move to RWLB (Research Way Laboratory Building) and the renovation of Cordley Hall. This latter effort includes communicating with the staff in charge of the RWLB renovation, communicating with the staff in charge of the Cordley renovation, and ensuring safety as we schedule the move from Cordley to RWLB during a pandemic.
BPP is in a strong position to handle many of the current challenges because of Blaine.
Thank you, Blaine!