Dear Birck Research Community, Welcome back to Birck! We've all had several months of learning how to deal with a global pandemic, and through the leadership of Purdue & Birck we have put measures in place to allow research to resume under special conditions/precautions. All of our labs, including the cleanroom, have special Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that must be followed in order to promote a safe work environment under the continued threat of COVID19 exposure. We are not operating in a 'business as usual' mode now, but rather under precautions and safety approaches to protect one another and reduce the chance of exposure. If you need to work in a lab you must review that lab's SOP and sign a compliance document. If you want to work in the cleanroom please contact me and I will guide you through the steps to get qualified. None of us has experienced this prior to the COVID pandemic so developing new safety practices and habits takes time and frequent reminders. Therefore, as a reminder when you're working in Birck, please remember to: 1. Wear a face mask 2. Maintain 6' social distancing in all person-to-person interactions..... discussions in hallways, labs, even the cleanroom. 3. Honor the maximum 3 persons allowed in the gowning room at one time 4. Honor the one person per air shower rule at all times 5. Frequently sanitize your hands with provided sanitizer located throughout the building 6. Honor the one-way designations in our hallways 7. Remind one another when you see violations. In particular the 6' spacing rule is a difficult habit to develop, so when you see others violating it please provide a gentle reminder that the social distancing rule must be maintained, for everyone's safety. Purdue has just established the "Protect Purdue Health Center" which is online and a call center to deal specifically with COVID questions, exposures, and concerns. There are numbers to call, and the information is located here: https://protect.purdue.edu/ Take a look when you get a chance as there is a wealth of information about Purdue's approach to providing a safe learning, research, and living environment. And definitely contact them if you think you may have been exposed at some point. As always, we're here to enable great research so please let us know if you have suggestions for improvements. Thanks, Ron & the Birck Team