Facilities Mechanical Systems Specialist
University Facilities Management
Kent Campus
When Erica Pelz, a Facilities Mechanical Systems Specialist for Laboratories, discovered there were safety issues with fume hoods in university laboratories, she jumped into action. Pelz, who is responsible for a wide range of mechanical facilities, was conducting hood velocity measurements in April when she found out that nearly all of the fume hoods were pulling at significantly lower than acceptable face velocity. As a result, use of these hoods was immediately suspended, shutting down all research activity. The labs had been shut down from mid-March until August because of the pandemic, which gave Pelz the opportunity to almost single-handedly do all of the necessary repairs.
The repairs required designing and ordering custom parts from vendors and installing them in the ventilation system by an onerous and dangerous process, which required Pelz to wear a moon suit with an external air supply. Pelz had to physically climb into the hood, to disassemble and remove the defective parts, carefully clean everything, install new custom parts and then reassemble everything for at least eight different hoods. If Pelz had not personally committed to solving these problems, they may not have been fixed. Faculty and students have her to thank for her dedication and persistence.