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Tinashe Gutu

Tinashe Gutu

Nominated by Elijah Halliwell & Shane Crider |
Tinashe Gutu in an employee whose contribution is difficult to sum up with words. When Brianna Smiley announced she would be leaving the University, Tinashe was given 3 weeks to learn her entire job, while also doing his normal job. He has been putting in well more than his 40 hours a week. He has had to learn about MOSFETs, Irradiators, and Thermoluminescent dosimeters. He has also become an expert at using the World’s Angriest EZ-Bake oven to anneal the TLDs, a process that takes several hours after each exposure. While working with these Irradiators he has also taken a role helping to mentor the Duke Health Physics graduate students, like a wise, kindly father…who is a decade or two younger than the students. All of that is on top of his normal compliment of Laser Safety Audits around the University, Durham, and beyond. He is also doing his normal compliment of X-ray Safety Audits for both Medical and Non-Medical users around the University, Durham, and beyond. He also has audits for Radioactive Material labs. Even through the Delta Surge, Tinashe was a mainstay in the office, since most of the work he has done has required his presence. Tinashe is one of a limited number of people on the Patient Care team. 2 out of every 5 weeks he is on patients or backing up the individual dealing with patients. Going to the hospital whether it is helping to decontaminate the bathroom floor like he had to help with in January or advising patients how to best limit exposure to loved ones. Which I guess is a decent characterization of Tinashe and how he goes about doing his job, a youthful, lab coat wearing Mr. Rogers who occasionally scrubs tile floors…and sometimes does physics.

Tinashe has had to step outside his standard roles to fulfill the needs of the department. He has helped train and mentor fellow new hires in the responsibilities and day to day obligations that are expected from Radiation safety. Additionally, he has taken a role within the Medical Physics Program at Duke to help guide the current students in their academic goals. Tinashe is patient, meticulous and detail-oriented. These personal qualities make Tinashe not only a great health physicist and a safety professional, but also a great person to work with, to learn from and to supervise.

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