Five staffers cited for their class and contributions

Distinguished Staff Award

Five UW staff members share the honors this year for their outstanding contributions to the mission of their departments and the University. They respond creatively to challenges, maintain the highest standards in their work, establish productive working relationships, and promote a respectful and supportive workplace. Distinguished Staff are awarded $3,000.

Tom H. Burritt
Research engineer, Department of Physics

Burritt

Tom Burritt designs and builds special equipment and instruments for experiments in nuclear and particle physics. Or, in the words of graduate student Miles Smith, Burritt solves technical problems by creating “unique mechanical gadgetry.” Burritt’s solutions to thorny problems are consistently creative, innovative, elegant—and successful. He’s currently building extremely sensitive detectors for a major physics project at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). A partial list of unique specifications: Must function reliably under three atmospheres of water for 10 years or more. Must work 1,000 times more quietly than any such detector made. “At every turn Tom has created astonishing innovations to bring the SNO project to a successful conclusion,” writes physics professor R.G.H. Robertson. “Tom works at a prodigious rate, delivering everything on schedule, sometimes even before we realized we needed it.” “He is an excellent team player,” adds Steven R. Elliott, UW physicist and detector program manager. “Once he has worked out the solution to a problem, he is able to train our other employees to execute the job. This then makes him available to contribute to the next complicated problem.” Generous with his time and skills, Burritt also serves as mentor to a half dozen graduate students. “After a year with Tom,” writes Robertson, “students are ready to take on projects of bewildering complexity and complete them.”

Lynn K. Catlett
Administrative assistant, Division of Ecosystem Sciences, College of Forest Resources

Catlett

When there’s a problem in the College of Forest Resources—from a recalcitrant photocopier to a simmering personnel conflict—Lynn Catlett is the person faculty, staff and students seek out. She combines the qualities of a leader with the spirit of a team player. She’s funny, to boot. Since joining Ecosystem Sciences as the division’s secretary in 1988, Catlett has become “a major college player,” reports division chair Thomas Hinckley. Several years ago Forest Resources undertook a wide-ranging (and, to many, stressful) strategic planning process. Many credit a good part of its success to Catlett. Her service on key departmental committees—focusing on operations, workplace quality, and ethics—has made Forest Resources a more respectful and supportive environment for all. “In my 20 years here,” Hinckley wrote, “the College has never been a better place to work. Lynn’s ideas and energy and her commitment to this enterprise have been most praiseworthy.” Catlett’s people skills are widely respected inside and outside her division. By a vote of the entire academic unit, Catlett serves as a college ombudsman. She’s also a longtime leader in the campus office workers union, where she’s earned the trust of union members and employers alike. She’s fair, pragmatic, professional, and deeply committed. Perhaps fellow labor activists Ellen Meyer and Claire Peterson capture Catlett’s leadership style best: “She could herd cats. But she’d rather empower them.”

Mary L. Martin
Custodian, Physical Plant Custodial Services

Martin

Everyone who works in the Purchasing and Accounting building knows what an asset Mary Martin is. “So much so,” report Lisa Pickford and Mariann Woodland, office assistants in transportation services, “that when there was a possibility of her being relocated to another building, everyone wrote letters to her supervisor requesting that she be stationed permanently in this building.” Martin provides custodial services for three departments—accounting, purchasing and parking—housed in the Purchasing and Accounting building. In her four years on the job, the floors have never been shinier, the premises never safer and the environment never more welcoming. “She takes a tremendous amount of pride in the condition of our building,” writes accounting operations manager Jackie Levine, “and she encourages us all to take better care of our work environment.” Martin executes her duties with unflagging attention to the welfare of those who work in her building. When people work late, she waits patiently until they’re finished before cleaning their offices. And if it’s after dark, she watches out the window to make sure they reach their cars safely. She promptly reports safety hazards or any unusual activity that might jeopardize people or property. Meticulously honest and thoughtful, she goes to extraordinary lengths to find the owner of any lost items she discovers. Ever friendly and cheerful, Martin never wavers from her high standards of service and responsibility. “I hope she never leaves our building,” says Levine, “unless she gets a promotion.”

LeRoy O. Olson
Principal mechanical engineer, Applied Physics Laboratory

Olson

If you saw the recent PBS television episode of “Nova” about UW scientists and underwater volcanoes, you’re already familiar with some of Le Olson’s accomplishments. He’s the sea-going engineer who figured out how to detach and retrieve four sulfide chimneys from hydrothermal vent fields on the sea floor 180 miles off the coast of Washington. In a published interview Olson described the challenge this way: “The operation was like flying a helicopter a mile over Mount Rainier and trying to lower a basket to the summit while the wind is blowing. Now imagine doing it with your eyes closed and relying on interpretive acoustic chirps (from transponder signals) to know its location.” Many people would consider that feat “a crowning lifetime achievement,” writes APL director Robert Spindel, “but for Le Olson it is all in a day’s work. Mr. Olson is the engineer to whom scientists come when faced with a challenging design or field deployment problem.” T.E. Ewart, oceanography professor emeritus, agrees. “It is (the) ability to interface with scientists that makes Le so valuable. He can take a group of starry-eyed scientists and get them on the same page by turning fresh-idea science into reality. Such talent is very rare.” Throughout his 39 years at APL, safety and success have been the hallmarks of Olson’s work.” His dedication to high standards for himself and others in ocean-going operations,” writes John Hart, APL ocean engineering department head, “has created an enviable safety record in what is, at times, a dangerous environment.”

Carol A. Robbins
Research technologist, Department of Neurological Surgery

Robbins

Carol Robbins goes the extra mile. She seeks out new challenges, eagerly learns new skills, and willingly takes on new responsibilities. She does whatever is needed to get the job done well. A 25-year veteran on the UW staff, Robbins has worked for the past 16 years in the neurological surgery laboratory of professor Philip Schwartzkroin. Her duties are far-ranging and critical to the success of her work group. She’s developed, for example, several new research techniques in the lab for studying epilepsy in the immature brain. That she contributes more than technical expertise is evidenced by her co-authorship of many of the lab’s important publications. Training newcomers to the lab is one of Robbins’ most valued roles. She’s “been the one indispensable player in a constantly changing cast of scientists, postdocs, students, and other technical staff,” Schwartzkroin writes. “Her dedication to the highest standards of research (both scientific and ethical) has been an important aspect of ‘quality control’ in our laboratory.” Robbins has an equally high impact on the quality of life in the lab. Ever ready with words of encouragement and pragmatic assistance, she “goes out of her way to facilitate positive interactions among lab members,” reports graduate student Elizabeth McCarthy. An “obvious bond of friendship and love exists between her and many of her current and former lab mates,” observes professor H. Jurgen Wenzel. “Without question, Carol contributes to her work environment everything that one could possibly ask for.” ¶