HOME | FEATURES | DEPARTMENTS | CLASS NOTES | BACK ISSUES | OHIO FRONT DOOR

 

For more information about the Industrial Hygiene program, visit them on the Web (a new browser window will open when you follow this link). More from Across the College Green Her years were few, her mark indelible The best-laid birthday plans Graduates need to employ new career tactics Center is a win for humanities Sharing a true gift for music A case of cultural preservation Students concerned with safety on the job New insights for cancer patients, families The right place, the right time Notes of interest Write to us! Care to comment on an Ohio Today story? Or share a memory about your days on campus? Then drop us a letter to the editor. Here's how: E-mail Send e-mail to ohiotoday@ohio.edu By regular mail Letters Ohio Today 102 Scott Quad Ohio University Athens, OH 45701-2979 Fax Fax letters to (740) 593-1887 Letters to the editor may be edited for space and style

Tim Ryan is accustomed to the puzzled looks he gets when he talks about his career. "When my wife found out I was an industrial hygienist, she thought I flossed typewriter keys," says Ryan, assistant professor and Industrial Hygiene Program coordinator.     Professor Tim Ryan and Scott Roman (foreground), a junior majoring in industrial hygiene, use equipment in the program's new lab. Photo by Rick Fatica Joking aside, industrial hygienists -- applied scientists who preserve and improve the quality of the environment and the safety of the workplace -- are in demand. They evaluate how emissions, noise, dust, vapors and other hazards common to the workplace affect employees' health. And they seek ways to protect workers and others who use the buildings while operating within fiscal realities. Ohio University's School of Health Sciences is one of only five in the nation to offer an undergraduate industrial hygiene program accredited by the American Board of Engineering and Technology. With a new lab in Grover Center, students studying industrial hygiene or environmental health, a related major, are able to familiarize themselves with equipment used in the field. Quest Technologies Inc., based in Wisconsin, contributed $16,000 worth of new equipment and software for the lab to supplement previous donations by SKC Inc. and alumni. "It is much more convenient to have the lab here in Grover, where the classes are being taught," Ryan says. "It is much easier to illustrate my lectures by showing students the real piece of equipment or giving a demonstration." Previously, classes were held in the Peden Stadium Tower and lab sessions in Tupper Hall. Many of the programs' graduates work for Fortune 500 companies, consulting firms or the military. Others seek graduate degrees. Jonathan Crawford, BSEH '99, received his degree in environmental health, in which specialists study the quality of air, water, shelter and food and help manage environmental factors that impact health and safety. Crawford is an industrial hygienist for Malcolm Pirnie Inc., an environmental engineering firm based in White Plains, N.Y. One of his most recent assignments was testing for airborne asbestos in residential and commercial buildings around Ground Zero in New York to determine if they were safe for people to reoccupy. "At Ohio University," Crawford says, "everything I learned, like chemistry and the hands-on experience with the equipment in the lab, I use every day." -- Jennifer Kirksey Smith