State Legislature, Governor Recognize Michigan Tech COVID-19 Lab

The unique tribute, offered at the Board of Trustees conference, is dedicated to the
University’s contribution to basic safety and quality of existence in the Higher Peninsula.

Michigan Technological University’s COVID-19 screening laboratory was recognized in a unique tribute April 30 by both equally houses of the Michigan Legislature
and by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II for its contributions
to local community health and fitness and basic safety.

The unique tribute commends the lab for “its rapid implementation at the start off of
the pandemic with the skill to conduct large-volume COVID-19 screening with rapid turnaround
effects. The lab has experienced a dramatic and considerable impression on the health and fitness and health and fitness
care of citizens in the Higher Peninsula of Michigan.”

The diagnostic lab was rapidly mobilized in just months final April following the pandemic
began to sweep the U.S. It celebrated its anniversary April 22. Michigan Tech’s facility is the only university campus-based COVID-19 screening lab
in the condition.

“It is a privilege to honor Michigan Tech’s COVID-19 lab,” claimed Rep. Greg Markkanen
(R-Hancock), who was in attendance at the Board of Trustees conference and offered
the tribute to the board. “The laboratory was essential to mitigating the distribute of COVID-19
across the Western U.P. I want to thank all who performed a component in getting this lab
off the floor. It was extraordinary to see all of the nearby methods occur jointly
to provide our local community and ensure the laboratory’s results.”

Brenda Ryan, chair of the Board of Trustees, thanked Markkanen for his position in initiating the COVID-19 screening lab.

“Michigan Tech is pleased to have been in a position to present this resource to the Higher
Peninsula all through these a challenging time,” Ryan claimed. “The school, staff members and students
who have labored so challenging to build and operate the COVID-19 screening lab are the
genuine heroes in this story and we thank them for all of their challenging do the job in excess of the earlier
year.”

The tribute recognized the considerable involvement of a amount of school and staff members,
such as Caryn Heldt, David Dixon, Cary Gottlieb, Carsten Külheim, Stephen Techtmann,
Jennifer Sanders, Cathy Jenich, Karl Meingast, Brooke Goulette, Mike Abbott, Natasha
Chopp, Emmett Golde and Karyn Fay.

“We are very very pleased of the do the job of the MTU COVID-19 screening lab,” claimed Sen. Ed
McBroom (R-Vulcan). “When the pandemic was just setting up to take keep final year, university
school and administration experienced the foresight to see that the epidemic experienced the potential
to damage a way of existence for the students and the university local community, as very well as
the whole western Higher Peninsula of Michigan. Their amazing contribution to a
additional secure and safe quality of existence for citizens is to be counseled.”

Exclusive Tribute to the COVID-19 Screening Lab

Underneath is the entire textual content of the tribute.

Enable IT BE Regarded, That is a legitimate privilege to acknowledge the Michigan Technological
University COVID-19 Screening Lab in Houghton, Michigan. We commend this lab for its
rapid implementation at the start off of the pandemic with the skill to conduct large-volume
COVID-19 screening with rapid turnaround effects.  The lab has experienced a dramatic and considerable
impression on the health and fitness and health and fitness care of citizens in the Higher Peninsula of Michigan.

In early 2020, when the SARS-CoV-two/COVID-19 pandemic was just setting up to take keep
in this place, Michigan Technological University (MTU) school and administration
experienced the foresight to see and recognize that an epidemic experienced the potential to damage
a way of existence for the students and the university local community, as very well as the whole
western Higher Peninsula of Michigan. MTU is a hub of large-power academia in the center
of a sparsely populated location and is filled with fiercely independent citizens —
lovingly called Yoopers. 

It was immediately recognized that through early identification of an infection by SARS-CoV-two
and with subsequent isolation of the infected man or woman (and many others determined through
contact tracing), MTU could hold its educational mission on monitor, hold students in course,
and carry on ongoing exploration. Also, it was recognized that if a screening lab
could be created with adequate potential, screening could be made available to the surrounding
local community. Inside of months, a conceptual concept remodeled into a working SARS-CoV-two
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening lab. This occurred with an amazing group of
MTU school customers and students from a assorted group of fields (such as forestry),
non-educational support staff members (these as materials management and the delivery and getting
office), and entire economical and time support of the MTU administration. Without the need of the
considerable involvement of Caryn Heldt, David Dixon, Cary Gottlieb, Carsten Külheim,
Stephen Techtmann, Jennifer Sanders, Cathy Jenich, Karl Meingast, Brooke Goulette,
Mike Abbott, Natasha Chopp, Emmett Golde and Karyn Fay, this approach would have taken
a long time to finish.

The MTU COVID-19 screening lab became the premier-volume SARS-CoV-two lab in the Higher
Peninsula. The lab was in a position to start out screening students and MTU personnel. The U.P.
local community benefited from this lab as very well. Nursing households from in excess of a hundred miles away
ended up bringing samples to MTU — working with them as a backup when the nearby health and fitness division
and nearby doctor offices ended up overcome with COVID-19 screening. For a time, the MTU
COVID-19 Screening Lab was in a position to present the most assessments for every working day in the whole condition
of Michigan.

IN Exclusive TRIBUTE, Consequently, this document is signed and dedicated to honor the
Michigan Technological University COVID-19 Screening Lab for this amazing contribution
to a additional secure and safe quality of existence for citizens in the Higher Peninsula of
Michigan. 

Gregory Markkanen, State Representative

Ed McBroom, State Senator

Gretchen Whitmer, Governor

Garlin Gilchrist II, Lieutenant Governor

Michigan Technological University is a general public exploration university, dwelling to additional than
seven,000 students from fifty four countries. Started in 1885, the University gives additional than
one hundred twenty undergraduate and graduate degree packages in science and technological know-how, engineering,
forestry, business and economics, health and fitness professions, humanities, mathematics, and
social sciences. Our campus in Michigan’s Higher Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway
and is just a handful of miles from Lake Excellent.