News & Events

Congratulations to Jason Holt, who is the recipient of the 2025 Sandra M. Beach Memorial Award for outstanding service to the Department of Chemistry. The award was presented to Jason at the Department's Staff Luncheon on Monday, July 14^th and honors his years of service as a member of the Department of Chemistry.

Some comments from those who nominated him were:

“I am nominating Jason Holt for the Sandra M. Beach Memorial Award. The spirit of the award—the camaraderie and welfare of the department—is exemplified by him. He came here with a chemistry education and the practical knowledge from being a service engineer, which he uses as a foundation for continued learning. From the time he joined Chemistry, Jason has shown a willingness to assist in multiple aspects of the department’s functionality. He is happy to work on a problem until coming up with a solution, whether a technical matter of instrumentation or the configuration and working of someone’s computer. Most, if not all, of the staff have had him work on something in their offices or labs. Like Ray, who is amazing, Jason shows a genuine curiosity about the way things work, and he interacts with people in a professional and friendly manner. Administrative and technical staff alike that I’ve spoken with are glad that Jason is here and available!”

“Jason stepped up and took on a lot of extra jobs while I was out on leave, helping me enjoy my time away. This included learning to run an entire new instrument for him and is now one of only two people in our department that can run and fix the EPR. He is a very hard worker and constantly trying to improve the use of our spaces. In addition, he has worked hard to improve the mass spec area including developing and implementing monthly preventative maintenance and checks of his instrumentation. Beyond all of his official and unofficial technical staff jobs you will frequently find him in research labs helping fix their instrumentation that is having problems or up helping fix computers for staff and faculty members.”

“Jason Holt is always quick to come help if there are computer problems. He always has a pleasant demeanor and attitude. He has always been very helpful to me.”

“Jason goes above and beyond every day. In addition to helping keep the instrumentation facility up and running, he happily collaborates with graduate students to develop new methods for experimental acquisition. Within the last year, he has worked closely with one of my students to figure out how to quantify PFAS in water at parts per billion levels using core instrumentation that is not optimized for such precision, and their efforts have really paid off. Jason also has helped my group set up our new in situ DRIFTS IR system.”

“Jason has been super helpful and professional. Last semester, he had the GC running smoothly for the 210 students. He’s also been helping me lots to develop a new 208 experiment. And whenever he helps with anything, I get a full written report of what he’s done (e.g. to the instruments to make them work). He’s also offered a lot of scientific advice (chiral TLC, all-organic NMR shift reagents, etc) which I appreciate.”

“Every time I have a Welcome Reception, Jason assists in setting up the tables, placing the food, etc. on the tables, stays to take care of cleanup, and helps with anything else I need. He is also helpful in repairing things that I need assistance within the department as well. He is personable and welling to help with orders he puts in if I have issues. If students need assistance he is always there to help.”

The Sandra M. Beach Memorial Award was established as a tribute to Sandra Beach, who served as the department secretary from 1991 until her tragic death in an automobile accident in 1993. She was an extremely important and well-liked staff member whose cheerful and helpful attitude made her an invaluable asset. Each year, co-workers, faculty, and students nominate a chemistry staff member whom they feel has contributed significantly to the welfare and camaraderie of the Department.