Technician for Physics and the Natural Sciences

TECHNICIAN for Physics and the Natural Sciences

SUMMARY: Provide technical support to the Physics Department and other departments in the Natural Sciences Division.  The allocation of time will be 70% to the Physics Department and 30% to the other departments.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Managing, maintaining, and repairing equipment in the Physics and Natural Science departments;
• Supporting the Physics and Natural Science departments in the construction of apparatus for departmental teaching and research activities, contributing to design where appropriate;
• Supervising the divisional machine shop, including maintaining the shop in a safe and well-organized state with the machines and tools kept in good operating order and training and assisting faculty, staff, and students in the safe use of the shop for departmental activities;
• Setting up of laboratory experiments for the Physics Department;
• Maintaining the Physics Department demonstration room and setting up of classroom demonstrations for the Physics Department;
• Maintaining an inventory of the Physics Department equipment and tools;
• Overseeing the growth and development of the shop, including the acquisition of tools reflecting more newly developed technologies.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Formal training and/or practical experience in general machine shop practice, including the ability to operate and maintain various types of mechanical, electrical and electronic, optical, and vacuum equipment;
• An ability to effectively and efficiently diagnose and repair or make recommendations regarding faulty equipment;
• An ability to work well with others to provide training and assistance in basic equipment operation and to assist in the design and building of apparatus for teaching and research;
• Good organizational and time management skills are essential;
• Experience with computers and computer software for general office work and bookkeeping and for data acquisition from scientific equipment;
• Reasonable problem solving skills and a knowledge of basic physics is desirable;
• Experience with or a willingness and ability to learn additional machine shop skills.