School of Arts and Sciences
Department of Chemistry

Lab Safety

The following information outlines safety resources pertaining to the Department of Chemistry.

Safety Training

For people who will be working in any type of lab, Annual Safety Training is required.

Learn more about Annual Lab Safety Training

Additional courses will be required depending on which type of work they will be doing specifically.  Examples include radiation, lasers, hazmat shipping, formaldehyde, and methylene chloride.

Learn more about additional training courses

Incident Reporting

The Accident/Incident Report Form must be used by all faculty members, staff members, students, contractors and visitors to report any accident that resulted in bodily injury/illness, an incident that could have resulted in bodily injury (a near miss) or an incident that resulted in property damage that occurred on Tufts property or on a Tufts sponsored/approved activity off campus.

PLEASE COMPLETE THIS DOCUMENT TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY. LEAVE ANY QUESTIONS BLANK THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER TO OR WHEN INFORMATION IS NOT READILY AVAILABLE. IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT TUFTS BE ADVISED OF THE INCIDENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, RATHER THAN RECEIVE A COMPLETED FORM. IN THE EVENT OF ANY SERIOUS INJURY REQUIRING MEDICAL ATTENTION, IMMEDIATELY CONTACT THE TUFTS UNIVERSITY POLICE EMERGENCY NUMBER AT 617-636-6911.

The report must be emailed to Risk Management – Tufts University (riskmanagement@tufts.edu) or sent to: Tufts University, Risk Management, 169 Holland St, Somerville, MA 02144.  Also please copy chemoffice@elist.tufts.edu and the Department Safety Committee Chair. 

When an incident happens in a teaching lab:

(1) The lab director must email a short summary to the following five people ASAP:

(2) The TA must complete the incident report within 24 hours and send it to the following seven people:

Download the Accident/Incident Report Form

Shipping Chemicals

There are specific rules and regulations related to shipping chemicals and biologicals, both within the United States and internationally.

View the rules and regulations for shipping/transporting hazardous materials

Safety Committee Chair

faculty photo

Luke Davis

Assistant Professor
I am interested in synthesis and characterization in inorganic and materials chemistry. I am especially interested in fundamental or applied chemistry that has important societal implications. My research laboratory has ongoing projects in several areas: Zero-emissions ironmaking. The synthesis of iron metal from iron ore contributes ca. 4% of global carbon dioxide emissions. I am interested in alternative thermochemical methods, such as the use of ammonia, for making iron from iron oxides. This project has extended to other critical metals also. Thin-film photovoltaics with earth-abundant, sulfide-based absorber layers. Thin-film photovoltaics (solar cells) provide electricity from sunlight with just a few hundred nm of light-absorbing material. We are exploring binary and ternary sulfides as top-cell materials for tandem photovoltaics. Earth-abundant molecular light absorbers and emitters. Molecular light absorbers and emitters are used in photoredox catalysis, dye-sensitized solar cells, and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). We are exploring high-spin complexes of iron and manganese to prepare new molecules that absorb and emit light. I am developing new research programs in other areas: New superconducting materials. Near-room-temperature superconductors have recently been realized in compressed hydrides. I am interested in new hydride compounds that are stable at ambient pressure and might serve as ambient-pressure, ambient-temperature superconductors. Volatile molecules carrying metal-atom equivalents for superconducting wires. Cryogenic superconducting wires enable quantum bits based on Josephson junctions. We are developing new molecules and methods to deposit the electropositive metals that make up these wires from chemical vapors.