Harlan Sorensen, Building Service Technician III for the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center at Clay Center (MARC), has received IANR’s 2013 Fourth Quarter Employee Impact Award. A MARC employee since 1987, Sorensen’s nominator describes him as “a very important cog on this maintenance crew … never wasting any time.” This fall, Sorensen was asked to construct a wall with a swing door to a room housing an expensive piece of equipment. Normally this would be a job for a construction crew but it needed to be done quickly. Sorensen stayed late on a Friday and finished the job Saturday, so as to not interfere with the everyday use of the equipment.
Sorensen also finished a room with a new wall and door; volunteered for weekend night security for several weeks; and did a very difficult job of dismantling and moving a safety hood to another building. When he repaired a vacuum pump with new parts he made from some scrap steel, he saved the university nearly $15,000 and months of time that would have been spent waiting for parts.
“People like Harlan are very unique to an organization and valuable beyond description,” the nominator added.
Award recipients receive cash awards and certificates. Application materials for these and other IANR awards are at ianr.unl.edu/staff-awards.