This handout is from Rebekah Drezek's workshop entitles "Building Your Lab: Transitioning to Independence" and is an example of the expectations she holds for her lab members.
This document is intended to describe my laboratory policies. If you have any questions about any of the information contained in this document, please do not hesitate to ask. I anticipate that you will find the lab to be a relaxed, supportive environment which enables you to develop into a productive and independent research scientist at your own rate. However, like any work place, there are certain rules which must be observed to ensure we all have a safe and effective working environment. Although I do not expect any major problems, failure to abide by the lab policies outlines here are grounds for dismissal from the lab. By accepting your first pay check from laboratory funds (January of the first year of graduate school), you are agreeing to follow our laboratory rules and signifying that you have completed all Rice required IRB and safety classes.
The information presented is designed primarily for PhD Students within the Department of Bioengineering but much is applicable to undergraduates, graduate students from other departments, and postdoctoral fellows working in the laboratory. Please email me any suggestions you have towards improving this document.
The information is arranged alphabetically by topic.
Backups
All lab members are expected to backup their desktop/laptop computer once a week. Generally, this should be accomplished by creating a folder on the computer where you store all lab related work and backing that folder up to a CD/USB/hard drive once a week. If you are involved in a computationally intensive project where large amounts of data are created, you can setup an automatic backup system for your computer as an alternative. I have had good experiences with the CMS ABSplus backup solutions. Also, Mac computers OSX-Leopard have a program called Time Machine which will automatically back up your computer to an external hard drive.
Books
Books owned by the laboratory are not to be removed. Please Xerox the chapters you are interested in rather than taking home books. Feel free to borrow any books or articles you want from Dr. Drezek’s library. You may check out books from the lab library in office GRB E103. Please sign out in the lab library binder when checking out books. Return original copies of articles or books as soon as possible.
Chemicals
If you receive an incoming order of anything with a chemical nature, it is your responsibility to label the bottle with the date of arrival, to check its storage requirements and store in an appropriate manner, and to place the MSDS sheet for the chemical in our laboratory MSDS binder. If you make any solution in the lab no matter how simple, you must label the container with your name, date, and what is in the container. Do not store food in the chemical refrigerators under any circumstances.
Code
Most graduate students will create code while working in the lab. Code you write while employed in the lab belongs to the lab and needs to be documented so that others can use the code after you graduate.
