Lesley Tchorek Retires
After 35 years of service to Western Chemistry, Lesley Tchorek Retires, and a well attended celebration was held in her honor. Lesley was born and raised in London Ontario. After high school, Lesley enrolled in a 3-year Co-op Science Lab Technology Program in Fanshawe College. Upon graduation, Lesley immediately started working in our department. Her starting date was Feb. 4th, 1981, so given the date of our reception party she has been with Chemistry for 35 years!
For the 1st 17 years, Lesley served as technician for the 1st Year Chemistry labs. Starting from 2000, Lesley has worked in managing the 2nd year large organic labs, including 2213 and 2223.
Throughout her career, Lesley always worked in very large undergrad labs, supporting about 2000 students on a yearly basis. If you multiply that number by her 35 years of service, she has helped about 70,000 students during her career. That’s a lot of students!
Besides supporting the successful labs day in and day out, Lesley has made many other contributions to the Department, Western University and the London Community in many different ways. For example, Lesley has made significant contribution to Western’s high safety standard we have today. She was the very first WHMIS Co-ordinator for the department and also the 1st UWOSA staff rep on the University's Laboratory Safety Committee. She was involved in developing the very first "Laboratory Health & Safety Manual" at Western. During her career, Lesley received 2 Health & Safety Recognition Awards from the Western President. The first award 2002 was for her individually and the second one was a group award given to the undergraduate laboratory staff who had contributed in the planning for the MSA Addition.
Over the years, Lesley had provided mentorship to several high school students through the High School Co-op Program. Two of the high-school students she mentored went on to complete post grad degrees in our department with Professors Puddephatt and Corrigan.
In the past 20 years, the department has had a number of construction projects that had major impacts on running our undergrad labs. For example, between 1997 and 1998 the entire Chemistry Building underwent major renovation for HVAC updating. The renovation presented major challenges to the operation of the undergrad labs as they had to be moved to temporary locations and then relocated to their new permanent homes. Lesley carefully planned and managed the successful multiple relocations of the entire first year labs. Her hard work with her peers helped ensure that teaching was not negatively affected. Using this experience, Lesley contributed to the teaching lab logistics during the construction of MSA.
On behalf of the Department, we at this event formally thank you for the contributions you have made in the past 35 years. Lesley, you are part of the reason why we can provide our students with “best experience” at Western.
You can see a large collection of pics from the party here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kalidescope/sets/72157663759056160/with/24209308163/
We wish you the best Lesley!
