Summary
As Technical Operations Manager Allison Hunter provides key strategic support for the management of technical staff, research support and administration, building management and the equipment and laboratory safety for the Department of Life Sciences. She was heavily involved in keeping the labs running throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and was recently awarded the prestigious Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Fellowship
She became interested in sustainability and initiated King’s College London’s very first lab sustainability project in 2008 when the building she worked in had reached its power limit. This work, mainly on freezer energy savings, was recognized by the first King’s College London Sustainability Award in 2014 and a S-Lab Making a Difference Award in 2015.
She has chaired a lab sustainability workshop in conjunction with My Green Labs (https://www.mygreenlab.org/) and S-Lab in 2019: Certification and Sustainable Laboratories: Equipment and Operations and presented another webinar later the same year on autoclaves and sustainability.
Allison is now one of the stakeholders for a new UK Govt led (https://etl.beis.gov.uk/) Scoping Study on Lab Cooling Equipment looking at having defined laboratory standards for cold storage and she has lobbied the EU on professional refrigeration standards since 2014.
The Imperial’s Technicians’ Network is chaired by Allison, and she is an active member of the institutional Technician Commitment Steering Group and represents Imperial on the London and South East Technician Commitment Initiative Institutional Leads Group. She has championed the Science Council Technician Commitment and professional registration for technical staff at both King’s College London and Imperial College London since 2012.