State Legislature, Governor Recognize Michigan Tech COVID-19 Lab

The unique tribute, presented at the Board of Trustees assembly, is committed to the
University’s contribution to protection and top quality of existence in the Upper Peninsula.

Michigan Technological University’s COVID-19 screening laboratory was regarded in a unique tribute April thirty by each residences of the Michigan Legislature
and by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II for its contributions
to community well being and protection.

The unique tribute commends the lab for “its swift implementation at the start of
the pandemic with the potential to execute significant-volume COVID-19 screening with swift turnaround
benefits. The lab has had a dramatic and important effect on the well being and well being
treatment of inhabitants in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.”

The diagnostic lab was quickly mobilized in just months very last April right after the pandemic
started to sweep the U.S. It celebrated its anniversary April 22. Michigan Tech’s facility is the only university campus-dependent COVID-19 screening lab
in the state.

“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 assembly and presented
the tribute to the board. “The laboratory was key to mitigating the distribute of COVID-19
across the Western U.P. I want to thank all who performed a portion in having this lab
off the floor. It was amazing to see all of the nearby sources appear alongside one another
to provide our community and ensure the laboratory’s accomplishment.”

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

“Michigan Tech is delighted to have been capable to present this useful resource to the Upper
Peninsula in the course of this kind of a difficult time,” Ryan claimed. “The college, staff and pupils
who have labored so tricky to establish and function the COVID-19 screening lab are the
legitimate heroes in this tale and we thank them for all of their tricky operate about the earlier
year.”

The tribute regarded the considerable involvement of a selection of college and staff,
which include 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 amazingly proud of the operate of the MTU COVID-19 screening lab,” claimed Sen. Ed
McBroom (R-Vulcan). “When the pandemic was just setting up to consider maintain very last year, university
college and administration had the foresight to see that the epidemic had the possible
to damage a way of existence for the pupils and the university community, as properly as
the complete western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Their remarkable contribution to a
far more protected and protected top quality of existence for inhabitants is to be counseled.”

Particular Tribute to the COVID-19 Screening Lab

Down below is the comprehensive text of the tribute.

Enable IT BE Recognised, That is a legitimate privilege to acknowledge the Michigan Technological
College COVID-19 Screening Lab in Houghton, Michigan. We commend this lab for its
swift implementation at the start of the pandemic with the potential to execute significant-volume
COVID-19 screening with swift turnaround benefits.  The lab has had a dramatic and important
effect on the well being and well being treatment of inhabitants in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

In early 2020, when the SARS-CoV-two/COVID-19 pandemic was just setting up to consider maintain
in this place, Michigan Technological College (MTU) college and administration
had the foresight to see and fully grasp that an epidemic had the possible to damage
a way of existence for the pupils and the university community, as properly as the complete
western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. MTU is a hub of significant-energy academia in the center
of a sparsely populated location and is stuffed with fiercely impartial inhabitants —
lovingly identified as Yoopers. 

It was promptly understood that by way of early identification of an infection by SARS-CoV-two
and with subsequent isolation of the infected particular person (and others identified by way of
speak to tracing), MTU could continue to keep its educational mission on observe, continue to keep pupils in class,
and proceed ongoing research. Furthermore, it was understood that if a screening lab
could be made with adequate capacity, screening could be available to the surrounding
community. Within months, a conceptual concept transformed into a functioning SARS-CoV-two
polymerase chain response (PCR) screening lab. This transpired with an remarkable team of
MTU college associates and pupils from a numerous team of fields (which include forestry),
non-educational aid staff (this kind of as content management and the transport and obtaining
place of work), and comprehensive economic and time aid 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
many years to comprehensive.

The MTU COVID-19 screening lab turned the premier-volume SARS-CoV-two lab in the Upper
Peninsula. The lab was capable to get started screening pupils and MTU employees. The U.P.
community benefited from this lab as properly. Nursing homes from about one hundred miles absent
ended up bringing samples to MTU — making use of them as a backup when the nearby well being section
and nearby health practitioner offices ended up overwhelmed with COVID-19 screening. For a time, the MTU
COVID-19 Screening Lab was capable to give the most checks for every day in the complete state
of Michigan.

IN Particular TRIBUTE, As a result, this doc is signed and committed to honor the
Michigan Technological College COVID-19 Screening Lab for this remarkable contribution
to a far more protected and protected top quality of existence for inhabitants in the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan. 

Gregory Markkanen, Point out Agent

Ed McBroom, Point out Senator

Gretchen Whitmer, Governor

Garlin Gilchrist II, Lieutenant Governor

Michigan Technological College is a community research university, house to far more than
7,000 pupils from fifty four nations. Founded in 1885, the College offers far more than
one hundred twenty undergraduate and graduate diploma plans in science and know-how, engineering,
forestry, enterprise and economics, well being professions, humanities, mathematics, and
social sciences. Our campus in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway
and is just a couple of miles from Lake Remarkable.