Lab Technician Senior

Overview

The Lab Technician Senior position supports instruction performed in the veterinary anatomy lab, such as:

• Prepare, maintain, and coordinate anatomical specimens.
• Clean, organize and maintain the veterinary anatomy lab teaching space and specimen preparation space.
• Provide digital images of prepared specimens for educational purposes.
• Assist/participate (to the level skills allow) in teaching anatomy to veterinary students.

The Lab Technician Senior will report to Scott Hexum. This classification has no supervisory responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Performing dissections and coordinate the course schedule to have them available during and after scheduled lab times
• Maintain current inventory of preserved, fresh, and skeletal anatomical specimens. Develop and implement a strategy to increase the number of specimens to account for the eventual increase in the number of students admitted into our program
• Learn and provide instruction in building skeletal specimens
• Maintain the dermestid beetle colonies
• Process bones using beetles, maceration, chemical degreasing, and whitening agents
• Embalm canines, equines, bovines, caprines, and ovines, and possibly other species, as needed for student and instructional staff dissections and learning opportunities
• Monitor inventory of supplies, including the first aid and chemical cabinets, and advise when necessary to replenish the supplies
• Be responsible for cleaning and organizing the anatomy lab, prep area, coolers, and freezers to include sweeping, mopping, wiping down surfaces, trash removal, etc., as required/requested by supervisor.
• Coordinate with the director of the willed-body program to procure fresh specimens to be embalmed
• Clean dissection instruments and reassemble them into dissection kits
• Ensure waste tissue is placed into incinerator bags to be taken to the UVDL for disposal
• Attend meetings as required
• Other duties may be assigned as necessary

Qualifications

Minimum Qualification:

• Six years of experience; or an associate degree plus four years of experience; or a bachelor’s degree plus two years of experience; or an equivalent combination of education plus experience. 

Preferred Qualification:

• Experience working in an anatomy or research laboratory is highly desirable.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ability to create and maintain accurate records
• Skilled in the use of personal computers and related software applications
• Knowledge of academic and vocational curricula.
• Program planning and implementation skills

Required Documents

Along with the online application, please attach:

 

1. Resume to be uploaded at the beginning of your application in the Candidate Profile under “Resume/CV”

2. Cover letter to be typed/pasted at the end of your application

 

**Document size may not exceed 10 MB.**

Advertised Salary

Minimum $42,000; Commensurate with experience, plus excellent benefits

ADA

Most of the job duties will be conducted indoors, protected from weather and/or associated contaminants without extreme temperature changes. Working in the anatomy lab will expose the educational specialist to preservative and embalming chemicals and their odors, as well as the odors associated with dissecting fresh and fixed animal tissue. Rarely, the employee will be required to work outdoors to procure specimens. The employee is regularly required to sit and often uses repetitive hand motions, such as when working on a computer or dissecting. Frequent reaching with hands and arms, as well as lifting and moving 50 lbs. is required.

 

College/Department Highlights

The Lab Technician Senior will be joining the college at an exciting point of transformation. Currently, the USU College of Veterinary Medicine participates in a "2+2" program with the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University and the broader Washington-Idaho-Montana-Utah (WIMU) Regional Program in Veterinary Medicine, which provides instruction to 30 students in each class cohort. However, in 2022 the state of Utah approved the creation of a full four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree program at USU, with the goal of admitting its inaugural class of 40 students in the fall of 2025 and supporting a class size of 80 veterinary students in subsequent years. The new college is the only veterinary medical education program in Utah.

 

The Utah State University College of Veterinary Medicine is dedicated to providing top-tier education and training to the next generation of veterinarians. Our program emphasizes hand