Guidelines for Laboratory Design: Health and Safety Considerations
“This course greatly expanded my toolsets for design—and more notably, helps to justify to owners why these buildings are necessarily more complex and require more attention and resources.”
—Paul Gibson, BS AE M.Arch, Senior Project Manager, MOA Architecture
Program Details
This applied program explores the needs of diverse stakeholders to ensure laboratories are safe, free of hazards, ergonomically sound, and environmentally friendly. Guided laboratory tours ensure you leave the course able to apply what you learned to your organization’s facilities and projects.
Program Fees
- Standard Price $3,200.00
Program Overview
The design and construction of a laboratory, regardless of its use, involves many stakeholders. While providing a safe environment for laboratory users to perform their work is imperative, competing stakeholders’ needs often cause health and safety considerations to be overlooked.
Participating in Guidelines for Laboratory Design: Health and Safety Considerations will help you address this issue by providing you with an understanding of how lab design options impact the health and safety of laboratory users and the environment. With this knowledge, you will be able to incorporate the needs of all stakeholders and ensure your labs are safe, free of health hazards, and promote a healthier environment.
Participants in this program will explore and address health and safety considerations for diverse laboratory types and gain the skills they need to create a safe laboratory environment. This program covers general laboratory design challenges, as well as issues specific to chemistry, microelectronics clean room, engineering, animal, biosafety, clinical, and sustainable laboratories. Participants also address issues with new laboratory construction, renovation, and decommissioning. Implications of COVID-19 on laboratory design will also be discussed.
This course provides a unique opportunity for architects, EHS professionals, engineers, lab users, and lab managers to collaborate on laboratory design.
Upcoming Program Details
Learn practical and cost-effective solutions to renovation and reconstruction issues including:
- Green design and construction
- Decontamination of an existing facility
- Special health and safety precautions in partially occupied buildings undergoing renovation
- Adding energy conservation features
- Case studies of successful reconstructions and details of decisions not to reconstruct will also be presented
- Laboratory ventilation including fume hoods and other exhaust requirements
- Safety design features include fire protection, electrical systems, emergency equipment and controls, and chemical storage
All Times are Eastern Time (ET).
| Monday, June 9, 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7:30–8:00 am | Check-in and Continental Breakfast | |
| 8:00–8:15 am | Classroom Technology Orientation | |
| 8:15–9:00 am | Program Introduction and Overview | |
| 9:00–9:45 am | Health and Safety Codes, Standards, and Environmental Regulations for the Lab | |
| 9:45–10:00 am | Refreshment Break | |
| 10:00–11:00 am | Lab Programming & Modular Design | |
| 11:00 am–12:00 pm | Risk Assessment and Hazard Planning | |
| 12:00–1:00 pm | Lunch | |
| 1:00–3:00 pm | Laboratory Hoods | |
| 3:00–3:15 pm | Refreshment Break | |
| 3:15–5:15 pm | Loss Prevention and Personal Safety for the Laboratory | Tuesday, June 10, 2025 |
| 7:30–8:00 am | Continental Breakfast | |
| 8:00–9:00 am | Laboratory HVAC Concepts & Measuring Airflow Effectiveness | |
| 9:00–10:00 am | Air & Gas Cleaning Technology for Laboratory Exhaust Lab Air | |
| 10:00–10:15 am | Refreshment Break | |
| 10:15–11:45 am | Laboratory Ergonomics | |
| 11:45 am–12:30 pm | Lunch | |
| 12:30–1:45 pm | Type Lab I: Hazardous Chemical, Biological & Radioactive Lab Waste | |
| 2:00–2:30 pm | Bus departs for Harvard University | |
| 2:30–2:45 pm | Refreshment Break at Harvard | |
| 2:45–3:15 pm | Type Lab II: Engineering Laboratory | |
| 3:15–5:15 pm | Lab Tour I: Harvard Engineering Laboratory | Wednesday, June 11, 2025 |
| 7:30–8:00 am | Continental Breakfast | |
| 8:00–8:45 am | Trends in Laboratory Design and Costs | |
| 8:45–9:45 am | Building Performance & Commissioning | |
| 9:45–10:00 am | Refreshment Break | |
| 10:00–11:00 am | Accident Prevention During Renovation | |
| 11:00–11:45 am | ADA Labs: Workers & Students with Disabilities | |
| 11:45 am–12:00 pm | Workshop Introduction | |
| 12:00–1:00 pm | Lunch and Workshop Preparation | |
| 1:00–1:45 pm | Workshop I: Presentations | |
| 1:45–2:15 pm | Bus departs for MIT | |
| 2:15–2:30 pm | Refreshment Break | |
| 2:30–3:00 pm | Type Lab III: Microelectronics and Nanotechnology | |
| 3:00–5:00 pm | Lab Tour II: MIT Nanotechnology Building | Thursday, June 12, 2025 |
| 7:30–8:00 am | Continental Breakfast | |
| 8:00–9:30 am | Type Lab Design IV: Clinical Laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital | |
| 9:30–9:45 am | Refreshment Break | |
| 9:45–11:15 am | Type Lab Design V: Animal Laboratory, Design, and Engineering | |
| 11:15 am–12:15 pm | Renovation Diagnostics | |
| 12:15–1:15 pm | Lunch | |
| 1:15–2:15 pm | Type Lab Design VI: Biosafety Laboratory Planning, Engineering, Commissioning and Certification | |
| 2:15–3:00 pm | Laboratory Decommissioning & Decontamination | |
| 3:00–3:15 pm | Refreshment Break | |
| 3:15–4:30 pm | Type Lab VII: Sustainable Lab Design: Construction & Operations | |
| 4:30–5:30 pm | Sustainable Laboratories: Case Studies | Friday, June 13, 2025 |
| 7:30–8:00 am | Continental Breakfast | |
| 8:00–9:45 am | Type Lab Design VI: Biosafety Laboratory Planning, Engineering, Commissioning and Certification | |
| 9:45–10:00 am | Refreshment Break | |
| 10:00–11:30 am | Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Assisted Laboratory Design | |
| 11:30 am–12:30 pm | Lunch and Workshop Preparation | |
| 12:30–1:15 pm | Workshop II: Presentations | |
| 1:15–2:00 pm | Case Study of Lab Building Design | |
| 2:00–2:15 pm | Program Critique and Closing |
This agenda is subject to change.
Current faculty, subject to change
Janet S Baum
Instructor
Executive and Continuing Professional Education
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Louis J. DiBerardinis
Instructor in Industrial Hygiene
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The online program includes virtual tours of Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex, Boston Children’s Hospital’s Clinical Laboratory, and the MIT.nano building, with insights from designers and EHS professionals. The on-campus program offers guided tours of various laboratories, including those focused on chemistry, nanotechnology, and biosafety, at leading Boston institutions. These tours reinforce course concepts, enabling participants to apply their learning to their own facilities and projects
Prior guided tours have included:
- Open labs at the MIT Koch Institute
- Animal labs at the MIT Koch Institute
- Clean rooms at Harvard University
- Chemistry research laboratory renovations at Harvard University
- Clinical laboratories at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
This program is designed for any professional involved in designing, constructing, renovating, or managing laboratories, including:
- Architects and designers
- Construction managers
- Environment, health, and safety professionals
- Facilities managers
- Laboratory managers
- Laboratory planners
- Project managers
- Scientists, researchers, and other laboratory users
Ideal participants will come from organizations including:
- Architecture firms
- Engineering and construction companies
- Government agencies
- Higher education and research institutions
- Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
- Other commercial and noncommercial research organizations
Credits & Logistics
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health will grant 3.8 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for this program, equivalent to 38 contact hours of education. Participants can apply these contact hours toward other professional education accrediting organizations.
The American Academy of Health Physics will grant 38 Continuing Education Credits for completion of this course.
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is a registered provider with the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education Systems. This program is designated for 32.5 LU Hours. In order to receive credit, participants must attend all sessions.
All credits subject to final agenda.
June 2025
Please check back for updated information.
All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation upon completion of the program.
