VIMS

Facilities/Safety/Trades

The Outstanding Staff awards are chosen by nominations received by the Awards Committee from all faculty, staff, and students at VIMS. They are awarded in the categories of Facilities/Safety/Trades, Technical Support, and Administrative Support.

This year, we are pleased to present the Outstanding Employee in Facilities/Safety/Trades to John Oldfield.

John’s many years of dedicated service in Marine Operations as a fabricator, welder, and machinist have greatly enhanced the quality of field research for our faculty, staff, and students. Virtually every field scientist at VIMS has sought John’s talents in fabricating or retrofitting a piece of gear. Many requests are last minute and complex, yet John’s calm, professional approach makes everyone feel comfortable and included. With more than 40 years of experience, he can often make suggestions that result in significant improvements to researchers’ designs. This type of expertise helps enhance VIMS’ excellent reputation in the marine science community and allows us to handle most fabrications in-house, thus avoiding expensive outsourcing.

In addition to working with VIMS scientists, John recently took the lead on surplussing outdated Marine Ops equipment. This raised $35,000 for VIMS, which helped purchase a replacement vessel for student and faculty research. John continues to lead complex procurement projects for equipment and instrumentation and regularly serves as the “go-to” person for most vendors. He also finds time to run the mobile crane, forklifts, and other heavy equipment, and to provide hands-on support during hurricanes and other severe weather events.

It is for these and other reasons that we find John Oldfield to be highly deserving of the VIMS Technical Support award. John’s work is of the highest quality and is always completed in an efficient and professional manner. He is truly an asset to the VIMS community whose efforts deserve to be recognized.