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Guidelines for Research in the Mabrouk Laboratory
Expectations Regarding Time Quality research takes time. Experiments typical of those done in our lab cannot be done properly in less than three hours and sometimes may require 8 continuous hours. Therefore, students should anticipate spending a minimum of two to three 8-hour days each week in the Mabrouk lab. Summer students or co-op students are expected to work full-time on their research. This means Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm each day. Note that we in the Mabrouk lab work on Fridays even though Northeastern University is officially closed. Additional time will be required to keep abreast of the relevant primary technical literature available in our library and at the nearby MIT Science library, to analyze experimental data, write up results, and to plan new experiments. For this reason undergraduates will be expected to submit a schedule to me at the beginning of the quarter.
Student Responsibilities Integrity is essential and stands at the core of everything that we do in our lab. Integrity means that you do your work to the best of your ability and that you are honest about what you have done, how you have done it, and what it means in all your dealings within and outside our lab. Every experiment must be carefully documented in your lab notebook. If the experiment is not documented in your lab notebook, the experiment did not take place. All experiments must be reproducible. This means you will need to perform every experiment in triplicate which means that you must make up three different samples and analyze each one and that the results from these three experiments must agree with each other. All of the data must be stored on a diskette or zipdisk and must be available to me upon request. Integrity also means that the data must not be adulterated or "massaged" in any way. In other words: Don't tell me what you think I want to hear. Don't show me what you think I want to see. Tell me what you did and what you got. Promptness is important. You should plan to call (373-2845) well in advance to inform me if you will be late to lab or unable to come to lab and you should be prepared to make up the time in order to complete any planned experiments. Reliability is also important. Once you have made a commitment to working on a project, I will expect you to fulfill your commitment. This means that it is not acceptable to "blow off" your research because you have underestimated how much time you need for completing assignments for other classes or because you decide that you would rather do something else. Team work is particularly important because we are a small research group. All group members are expected to help each other at all times. In terms of working with others both inside and outside of the group, each student is expected to understand that he/she represents Prof. Mabrouk and Northeastern University at all times. A terrific working rule in dealing with others is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I have been exceptionally proud of my group over the past eleven years. My students have worked together as a family to do quality work and in the process we have had a lot of fun. Since we are a small lab, it is extremely important that everyone is able to communicate fully and clearly with each other. For this reason, I have designated our lab an "English-only" lab. This means that you may not use any language other than English when you are working in the lab or office. Many of my students are foreign-born. I have learned that it is in your and my best interests if everyone learns to speak English well. Good speaking (and writing) skills are essential for everyone if you wish to have a good job in today's competitive job market. While I understand that it is difficult to communicate in English at the start for students who have just arrived in the United States, I have also found that it is essential particularly for newly arrived foreign students to make a strong effort to practice English at every opportunity if they wish to be successful. Please understand that this is not a request. Students who refuse to follow this policy will be asked to leave the lab. In our lab, research is about learning first and foremost! Therefore, you will be expected to fully participate in weekly group meetings and to complete any assignments made at these meetings. Weekly group meetings will be held in Hurtig Hall room 124. You should expect to act as an enthusiastic ambassadors for your research project and you should expect to be called upon to talk about your research to the many visitors that come to our lab both from within the university and from other universities and companies. Chemical Hygiene and Lab Safety A happy lab is a safe lab! All students are responsible for using safe chemical hygiene in the lab. New students must complete the Enivironmental Health & Safety training as soon as possible. You may not work in the lab until you have successfully completed the on-line safety training. Each student is expected to familiarize his/herself with the proper handling and hazards associated with each of the many reagents with which he/she works routinely. Thus, students are expected to read the MSDS for each of the reagents with which they work PRIOR to handling that reagent, to follow the standard practices for safety when using these reagents, and to educate/protect those working around them. To help new students become acclimated to our lab what kinds of chemicals we use, where they are stored, and what safety hazards they represent, you will be expected to verify and update the lab chemical inventory at the start of your work. All students must wear a lab coat, safety glasses, closed-toe shoes, and proper gloves (not latex!) while in the lab. Due to the dangers associated with the many chemical reagents we use in our lab, students may not eat or drink while at their lab bench for any reason. Cleanliness IS next to godliness! You will be expected to clean all your glassware immediately following each experiment and to leave the laboratory in proper working order at the end of the day. Sometimes, this may mean that you will need to help others, too. Horseplay is never permitted in our lab. As a biochemical lab, our lab is a potentially very dangerous place. Students should never play with liquid nitrogen, dry ice, flames, organic solvents, or other reagents for any reason! Each student is responsible for labelling all beakers and/or flasks containing any chemical and/or biochemical reagents. The label must contain the following information:
Each student is responsible for cleaning all of his/her glassware at the end of each day. It is never acceptable to leave dirty glassware in the sink for someone else to clean. If you empty a reagent or solvent bottle, you must clean the bottle thoroughly with soap and water and then rinse the bottle three times with distilled water. You should then completely remove the reagent label from the bottle and place a new label on the bottle which reads: "EMPTY - Triple Rinsed" and place the empty bottle in the solvent waste storage location. Four-liter solvent bottles cleaned in this way can be reused for waste disposal. Small 1 dram vials should be cleaned, triply rinsed with distilled water, and disposed of in the glass waste disposal box at the end of the lab bench. Proper waste disposal is an important part of our lab chemical hygiene program. All organic waste should be placed in a 4 liter waste bottle in the designated lab hood located in the rear left of our lab. Be sure to read the waste bottle label first to determine whether your waste is compatible with the principal components listed on the label. If you are unsure about compatibility speak to me before doing anything! The approximate amount of the principal reagents should be noted on the waste label at the time you add the waste to the waste bottle. Please also be sure that the waste bottle is capped AT ALL TIMES unless you are adding waste. When the waste bottle is filled, please place it in the designated waste storage location and fill out the form on the Environmental Health & Safety website (x2769) to schedule a waste pickup. Pickups are made on Tuesdays. Sharps (disposable syringes and syringe needles) must be disposed of in the red sharps containers. Sharps must never be disposed of in the wastepaper buckets for any reason! When a sharps container becomes filled, please be sure to take it over to Mugar Hall for disposal. You will find information on the location and hours when sharps containers are collected on the Northeastern EH&S website. Since everyone in the lab shares the separations, spectroscopic, and electrochemical instrumentation, all students must be responsible for maintaining the instrumentation and computers in the lab. If an instrument malfunctions when you are using it, you are responsible at a minimum to post a note, inform me, and to determine how to repair/restore the instrument. Things always break. This is normal so please don't be afraid to tell me if something needs attention. You may need to learn how to fix the instrument yourself. This practice is called troubleshooting and is a valuable skill in industry. The buddy system is the best system of working in the lab! Undergraduates may only work in the Mabrouk lab when Professor Mabrouk or a graduate student is present. No high school or undergraduate is permitted to work alone without my prior permission. Students should not provide any individual outside of the group access to the laboratory, reagents, instrumentation, data, etc. for any reason. The doors to the laboratory should remain closed and locked when no one is in the laboratory. At the end of the day, if you believe you are the last person to leave, you should turn off all of the instrumentation, lights, computers, and lock all of the doors. A good rule of thumb is when in doubt turn it off! Work Study and Paid Research Students Students doing work study will need to obtain from and submit a time cards to Richard Pumphrey, the Chemistry Department Manager. Students working for pay will need to file an I-9 form with Nancy Weston in the main chemistry department office (102 Hurtig). Students working for pay from a grant or doing work study will be paid for the actual time spent doing research. Please note that just like in the real world, I don't pay you for the lunch hour. Time sheets, located on the back of the lab door must be completed and submitted to me each Wednesday so that I can file what is called a warrant with the Division of Sponsored Project Administration for your pay. Please note that the warrant only begins the payment process, so it is very important that you complete and return the pay slips to me promptly each week if you want to receive your paychecks in a timely fashion. Students working on part-time pay slips may collect their paychecks at the Payroll Office window, located on the second floor of Richards Hall. You will need to bring your Northeastern University (picture) ID in order to claim your check. Research for Credit Students doing research for credit will be expected to submit a final research report describing their research accomplishments in the lab. The format for this research report is that of a scientific technical paper and should have abstract, introduction, experimental, results, analysis, and discussion sections and follow the format prescribed by the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Reagents and Supplies The lab is just your own kitchen; you can only cook haute cuisine with the proper ingredients in hand! Our lab is stocked with frequently used office supplies including diskettes and a wide range of biochemical reagents. These supplies are for research-related use only. Under no circumstances is any student allowed to remove reagents or supplies from the lab. To help our lab run smoothly, you will need to order the chemical reagents you use and you will need to reorder these reagents when supplies of these reagents are nearly depleted according to the standard lab procedures. It is a terrific idea to check the lab inventory well in advance of doing an experiment and make sure that all of the reagents are stocked in the lab. This is especially important since the university purchasing procedures are not research-friendly! Office supplies are provided for your use when performing research work only. You may not use the lab as a supply depot for your school work or non-lab related activities - this is theft pure and simple. If you misappropriate/misuse the office supplies, your office supply priviledges will be revoked and you will be expected to supply your own office supplies for all lab related work. Procedure for Purchasing Reagents and Supplies All reagent and materials purchases are made using University credit cards called PROCARDS which I hold. To make a purchase please complete one of the purchasing forms (located on the back of the lab door) and hand the completed form to me. When I have a chance (please note this doesn't mean any time of the day or night!), I will then telephone the company and place the order. Don't expect overnight delivery. Shipping is usually done by UPS (cheapest)not FEDEX overnight and materials arrive in several days. When materials do arrive to the lab, please remove the invoice (usually on the outside of the package) and give it to me. We must retain these slips for the PROCARD record keeping system. Write your initials and the date using a Sharpie-marker on any reagents and place them in the appropriate location within the lab. Finally, please be sure to update our chemical inventory so that we can keep an accurate record of what chemicals we have in the lab. Xeroxing Students xeroxing selected material relevant to their research may use the department xerox machine which is located in the mail room near the main chemistry office. Note that all xeroxed articles are the property of the Mabrouk lab and should be left in the lab at the end of your period of study for use by future students. Some students will also be issued a xerox card for use in the Snell Library. If you are issued a xerox card and lose it, please understand that you will be responsible for replacing this xerox card out of your pocket so don't lose the xerox card. Telephones You may use the lab phone ONLY for research-related purposes and you must speak in English. You may not use the lab phone for personal conversations. If you wish to talk to friends, please leave the lab and use your cell phone or a pay phone. Students who use misuse the phone at the university's expense will be prosecuted and dismissed from the lab. Computers You may use the lab computers ONLY for research-related purposes. The software is the property of the lab and you may not remove it from the lab, load it on home computers, loan it to friends, etc. You may not use the lab computers to download software, images, play computer games, etc. that is illegal or which is for personal use (e.g., games, music, shopping, etc.). My computers are English-only. You may not download Chinese or other non-English language software. Students who use misuse the computers will be dismissed from the lab. Each student should create his/her own directory on each computer and place all files therein. All data should be backed up on a zip disk or memory stick. Clothing You should wear sensible clothing to the lab every day. Sensible clothing is clothing that covers and protects your body from chemicals. No bare midriffs please! Whenever you are working with chemicals at a lab bench you should wear one of the available lab coats over your clothing. For safety reasons, you must wear closed-toe shoes at all times. You may not wear sandals in the lab. If you have long hair, be sure to tie it back from your face. Student Office While you are a member of the Mabrouk group, you will have use of a desk in the student office. Please understand that this is a privilege not a right. You must clean out the desk and remove all of your belongings when you have are finished with your research and are no longer affiliated with the lab. This means that if you are doing independent study, that you need to remove your belongings at the end of the semester. If you do not remove your belongings within a month of your departure, they will be thrown out so please remove your personal belongings when you leave the lab. Food and Drink I enjoy food and beverages (particularly coffee!) very, very much! Generally, in the summer time, everyone in the lab eats together in the student office. Sometimes we go outside as a group and eat at local restaurants. The only restrictions I place on food and drink are that for safety reasons, you cannot eat or drink anything in the lab itself. You are more than welcome to eat at your desk in the student office however please do not carry anything into the connecting research lab space. If you do eat or drink anything in the student office, please be sure to dispose of your food/drink trash in the student office. Do not throw any food or drink containers in the trash located in the research laboratory as that is a safety violation. Friends/Visitors Please do not bring friends/visitors into the laboratory if you are planning on doing research. This is a safety consideration. You cannot do quality research and entertain visitors at the same time - this is just good common sense. If you wish to show the lab off to friends and visitors, please let me know in advance and please be sure that your guests wear the proper safety equipment (lab coat and goggles) while they visit and make sure that they follow all of the laboratory rules. No guests should for any reason be allowed to assist in experiments - again this is an important safety consideration. Lab Notebooks All students are expected to keep a permanent lab notebook, which I provide and which remains the property of the lab, while working in the group. Each experiment should be clearly described in the lab notebook. Please use the first four or five pages for your table of contents. Notebook entries should include a descriptive title, date, purpose, procedure, data, calculations, and discussion. All entries should be dated in the upper right corner of your notebook. A new page should be used for each day's work. An appropriate descriptive title for each day's work should be provided at the top of each page and this title should also appear with the page number in a table of contents at the front of your notebook. Every experiment is performed for some reason. This is the purpose of the experiment and should be clearly described at the beginning of your record of the work. The purpose does not need to be lengthy (1 - 2 sentences maximum) but it should be self-contained and make sense to anyone else who works in our lab. Underneath this you, should carefully describe the procedures you used to accomplish the experiment. The manufacturer, grade (biotech, analytical, spectroscopic, etc.), lot, etc. should be identified for any reagents you use. All data should be recorded in your notebook at the time that the work is done not afterwards. Data MUST always be recorded directly in the notebook. All instrumental data should be saved on diskette and a reference clearly identifying the name of any computer file containing experimental data must be included in your notebook. At least one sample calculation -including units- should be done out in your notebook when calculations are required in the analysis of data. It is never permissible to obliterate any information in the notebook. If a mistake is made, the offending entry should be crossed out with a single diagonal line through the text. Whiteout should never be used to correct an error for any reason. Your initials and the date should be placed immediately to the right of the entry that is crossed out. Under no circumstances should any page ever be ripped-out of the lab notebook. This forever destroys its value as a legal record of research progress. When you are new to the lab and just getting started doing research, students are always concerned about when to write information in the lab notebook. My advice is that you should write everything down. Nothing is too trivial to record. Over time you will learn what you need to write and what you don't need to. It is always better to write it down because in science we can only go by what is in the written record and the bottom line is: if you didn't write it down, it didn't happen! The notebook and all data diskettes will remain the permanent property of my lab and Northeastern University and should not leave the laboratory for any reason. Students must surrender all notebooks immediately to me at the end of their research experience or at any time upon her request.
Keys Only postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates doing thesis research will be issued keys to the laboratory. You must surrender all keys immediately to me at the end of your research experience or at any time upon request. You may not loan your keys to friends or use the keys to provide access to university resources to non-university personnel. Contract
I agree to abide by these rules and understand
that if I do not, my position may be terminated.
copyright P.A.Mabrouk, 2006
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