今年春天，我们会见了Thomas Dunnam，他是我们公司的材料实验室经理La Porte, Texas locationabout his new role, how he built his laboratory to include specialty sulfate and chloride soil testing and what it means to him to be an employee-owner.
How long have you been the La Porte Materials Lab Manager with Braun Intertec?
I’ve been here since May 2019. Before that I worked in materials labs in the La Porte area for almost five years.
What is your background?
我在2011年获得了德克萨斯理工大学的化学学士学位，然后在2013年获得了贝勒大学的化学硕士学位。我的重点是无机化学，我所学的大部分是我们所说的“主群化学”。
What attracted you to Braun Intertec in La Porte?
When I started talking toKevin Williams关于加入布劳恩国际贸易公司，manbet体育滚球他给了我很多自由来建立拉波特实验室和增加专业土壤测试能力，这不仅是不寻常的布劳恩国际贸易公司的其他实验室，但在整个德克萨斯州。
具体来说，他们希望我在材料实验室建立他们的化学测试能力，检测土壤、混凝土、火山灰（如粉煤灰）和水中的硫酸盐和氯化物。能得到这样的自由真是令人兴奋。凯文提出让我利用这个机会，并与它运行，并发展硫酸盐和氯化物测试的权利，拉波特。
你喜欢布劳恩国际贸易公司的文化吗？manbet体育滚球
I like that everything feels like a collaborative effort. When I started at Braun Intertec I went to the Beaumont office, which already has a fully functioning materials lab, to learn about the Braun Intertec way of doing things because we hold ourselves to very high standards. Elaine DuBray, our Kansas City Materials Lab Operations Manager came down here to help as I was setting up, too. Even though we’re spread out across the country, the materials lab team has a meeting every week. It feels like a tightknit community within our materials lab testing group and I really like that.
How does safety play into the day-to-day operations of your lab?
Safety is a huge deal in our lab. There are a few pieces of equipment we deal with in our lab that could seriously injure you if you’re not careful, so we take safety very seriously.
我不想说安全是例行公事，因为这让你看起来好像没有意识到安全是你必须时刻意识到的事情。我们希望确保实验室没有任何问题，如果发生任何事情，我们希望团队熟悉张贴的安全程序，以便他们了解如何解决这种情况。
你最喜欢什么类型的项目？
I really like the environmental treatability work we do down here. Here in Houston and on the Gulf Coast we have a lot of contaminated soil and we have a lot of clients who interact with that contaminated soil.
There are a lot of samples we get in the lab that are routine. Which is to say, the process to analyze these samples typically have the same steps—the results might vary but the process is the same. However, when you receive environmental treatability samples, it’s up to me, the client and Kevin to sit down and spread all the pieces of the puzzle out in front of us and decide: what do we want to do? What are the tools we have to stabilize this material? What is the stabilization criteria? It’s up to us to put those in place. Getting to sit down, figure out the puzzle and put the pieces back together is one of my favorite parts of my job.
What does it mean to you to be an employee-owner?
To me, being an employee-owner means there is an extra level of pride you take in your work. It’s not just the Braun Intertec name that’s going out on work because, as an employee-owner, you’re a part of the company and you feel a sense of ownership in the service you provide clients. It also gives you a shared feeling of success when things all come together.
你认为我们的客户应该了解你在拉波特的材料实验室团队吗？
我想让客户知道，我们在博朗国际贸易公司的骄傲是，我们提供一流的技术人员，科学家和工程师。我在这里manbet体育滚球工作的人每天都是一群非常优秀的专业人士。这可以追溯到作为一名员工所有者，但这些人无论是在外地还是在办公室，都对自己的工作格外自豪。
我们的团队想确保我们把事情做好。我想是的。