Robert D. Wells, research assistant, Department of Physics, was one of 12 staff selected for the 2011 Distinguished Staff Award. Wells has a long history of achievement built during his 20 years in the Department of Physics.

“Bob willingly and enthusiastically helps across departments and across traditionally assigned roles proving his multidimensional commitment to excellence throughout the university,” a nominator wrote. “He is continuously looking for the next problem to solve or the need to fill to keep progress moving forward.”

Wells was instrumental in the recent move of numerous researchers from Smith Laboratory to the new Physics Research Building, a process made extremely complicated by some of the conditions it was necessary to maintain in the various labs.

Technical staff from the department worked outside normal job assignments to help researchers, movers and project planners get the moves accomplished. “In Bob’s particular case, this involved hundreds of hours of physical labor to move, clean, organize and purge equipment,” wrote a nominator. “Because of Bob’s efforts, the originally projected move costs were trimmed by tens of thousands of dollars.”

On another occasion, Wells was approached for help by a group of engineering students participating in a NASA program involving research to be conducted aboard a zero-gravity flight over the Gulf of Mexico.“TBob helped us organize our thoughts and design what became an incredibly complicated experiment,” one of the students wrote. “Whenever we thought we were stuck, he would make a suggestion that could only come from someone with years of experience. I have no doubts that the success of our experiment was a direct result of Bob Wells’ donated time; we would not have flown if not for him.”

The University Distinguished Staff Award singles out staff members, who have had five years of continuous service, for exceptional accomplishments, leadership, and service to the university community by significantly improving or enhancing the quality of work life in ways that make a substantial difference for their colleagues; contributing to outstanding and sustained improvements in customer services; and developing creative solutions to problems that result in significantly more effective and efficient university operations. The Office of Human Resources awards honorees a $1,500 cash award and a $700 increase to their base salary.