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World-class lab manager

SESL is pleased to introduce our world-class laboratory manager, Luzmila Abercrombie, who joined us late last year. Luzmila’s extensive background in running international soil laboratories makes her an invaluable asset as SESL’s work expands and new procedures are introduced.

Luzmila gained a Bachelor of Science degree in Peru, followed by a Master of Science degree in Mexico. In her first major role, she worked for the University of North Carolina on soil projects in Peru. This led to a move to the USA to work for the Webb Technical Group in North Carolina, a private food R&D and analysis company associated with the University.

The reputation Luzmila gained in the USA led to her appointment back in Peru with ICRAF, the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, where she set up a soil laboratory from scratch in 3 months. From there she joined the National University of San Marcos, and then moved to La Molina Agrarian University of Peru as head of its soil lab, where she ran commercial and research activities and taught students.

Moving to Australia in 1999 to join her extended family, Luzmila worked with the Bread Research Institute and CSIRO as a food scientist. She has two children now studying at university.

SESL’s good luck

Luzmila joined SESL in late 2008. Major growth in SESL’s business has outstripped our previous capacity to handle sample testing and reporting, so Luzmila has arrived at exactly the right time to apply her wealth of experience to completely restructuring the lab’s work. The first stage in the restructuring was the installation and commissioning of the ICP-OES in January this year, as described in the February Fertile Minds. Luzmila is now working on replacing SESL’s old procedures with faster, more accurate ones that she is developing and validating. As the next stage, in the next couple of months we will begin to implement our new laboratory information management system, or LIMS (described in this issue), in which our newer equipment will be linked by wireless to a dedicated computer that will collate and track all data on every sample. Luzmila is reorganising the lab to allow this transition.

Luzmila oversees both physical and chemical testing in the lab, supervising our half dozen lab staff. Although she doesn’t work in the lab as such now, she spent her first month working with all the equipment and tests to learn what we do so she can improve it. Luzmila is excited by the challenge ahead of her in bringing SESL into the 21st century. One of her current projects is getting the lab NATA-accredited, a critical requirement for many of our clients. The first NATA inspection will happen in June, followed by (we hope) the final inspection 2 to 3 months later, and final accreditation by the end of 2009. We will let you know how this progresses.

We are delighted to have Luzmila with us, not least for her delicious Peruvian dishes that she brings to our monthly international food day.

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