Statement of Purpose

The SEAS safety committee mission is to improve the safety environment for its constituent faculty, staff, and students. This is accomplished by providing training and by disseminating pertinent information to ensure that research and teaching are conducted in as safe a manner as possible. The committee is also responsible for seeing that appropriate safety equipment is available and that prudent practices are employed in the operation of our laboratories.

History

The SEAS safety committee has a membership of close to sixty people. This format reflects the philosophy of working from the ground up to provide an effective safety program. The conducting of research in a safe manner begins at the bench. As such, the committee is broadly based by design and has representation from all of our research and teaching facilities. 

The committee suggested it should police itself, inspect its own laboratories and provide its own training. 

The safety committee continues to explore new ways that it can be effective and have a positive influence on the teaching and research experiences of all those it serves.

Dr. Anas Chalah, Committee Chairperson

As the director of SEAS undergraduate teaching labs, Dr. Anas Chalah leads the team supporting teaching courses and partners with faculty to create a leading environment for hands-on engineering education. Anas is also responsible for developing new labs using the best pedagogical methods, assisting with strategic planning, and supporting SEAS's growing presence in bioengineering.

At Harvard University Extension School, Anas teaches several courses on Nanobiotechnology, Engineering of nanostructures for drug delivery, as well as the design of microfluidic devices for biological and pharmaceutical applications.

At Harvard Medical School/BIDMC he focused his postdoctoral research on understanding the switching mechanism between cellular survival pathway and programmed death pathway.

Prior to BIDMC, Anas served as the Lab Senior Director of the undergraduate Chemistry Department at UMass Amherst where he directed 6 labs and supervised a large body of teaching assistants and undergraduate students. He also worked as a manager in OMO/Unilever International.

Anas received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Chemistry.