News and Events
Scott Dreisbach and Sujeewa Perera Receive College of Science UA Star Awards
UA Chemistry staff members Scott Dreisbach and Sujeewa Perera have recently received UA Star Awards from the College of Science Staff Advisory Council. This award is meant to recognize individuals who perform job duties “above and beyond” what is normally expected, improve efficiency in the workplace, and demonstrate - through attitude and actions - a willingness to help others and work as a team. During a surprise presentation, Sujeewa and Scott received Star Award certificates and trophies.
Sujeewa Perera
Sujeewa Perera is a Senior Lab Coordinator in the Chemistry preproom where he supports all of the teaching laboratory classes in the Chemistry Department. His job entails preparing reagents, setting up experiments, coordinating with teaching assistants, lab managers, and students, and overall ensuring that students can successfully complete experiments and therefore learn from their lab experience. He also acts as the preproom liaison for the department's analytical chemistry labs.
Sujeewa's expertise is in the field of analytical chemistry. Not only does he act in the usual capacity as lab coordinator, but he also shares his wealth of knowledge to advise and to teach students. He is therefore a great help to teaching assistants when they are overwhelmed with student questions or when they confront some type of question or problem that they cannot solve. Having Sujeewa around makes the labs run much more smoothly.
Sujeewa is always willing to help every student, TAs, and his coworkers. In many cases he helps before he is even asked to, as if he anticipates when things are needed by others. He never complains when asked to prepare an extra bottle of reagent or make some other special request. In fact, it is rare that he does not have a smile on his face. He is extremely fast and efficient in his work, and never misses a detail.
Scott Dreisbach
Six months have passed since the Department moved into the new Chemical Sciences Building. The move went so smoothly that it nearly went unnoticed. The key ingredient in this successful transition was Scott Dreisbach. He has been an absolute star in moving nine research groups and three research support service facilities into the new building in a timely and well controlled fashion. He worked incredibly hard to provide a smooth move with the least amount of downtime for all involved.
Scott also proactively looked to solve problems before faculty and students were stuck, he interacted well with Facility Management to fix what was not done correctly, and he has proposed and implemented improvements to make the new building a better place. Furthermore, in spite of some trying situations, Scott has always kept his cool and resolved the problem no matter how big or small it has been. Without Scott this move would have been a nightmare.
