Earth Day was founded in 1970. U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin called for a nationwide demonstration in the spring of 1970 aimed to raise awareness of environmental issues. It worked. The first national Earth Day was April 22, 1970.
October 30, 2025
For the second year, we participated in the International Freezer Challenge as an institution. The Freezer Challenge is a free competition to promote cold storage best practices, improve lab energy efficiency, and increase equipment life. Of the 113 academic institutions that participated, we placed 20th overall, with a total of 289 points and 91 kWh/day saved, equivalent to 0.042 metric tons CO2 equivalent per day, or 108 miles driven daily by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle.
9 labs participated in the competition this year. The top three scorers are:
- Guo Lab (Lab Lead: Yuelin Tang) with 17 points (place 37 out of 273 participating small labs, 10 or fewer lab members)
- Siolas Lab (Lab Lead: Katherine Bacchi) with 15 points (place 53 out of 273 participating small labs, 10 or fewer lab members)
- Jones Lab (Lab Lead: Noemi Linden) with 13 points (place 61 out of 143 participating medium labs, 11-25 lab members)
Yuelin Tang wins a cooler bag and a picnic blanket, and the Guo lab wins reusable mugs and a glove recycling box, sponsored by VWR, and a set of cryogenic vial grippers sponsored by Corning.
A big thank you to Avantor/VWR and Corning for sponsoring the gifts for the winning lab.