The State Hygienic Laboratory presented the seventh William J. Hausler Career Achievement Award Sept. 13 to Michael Pentella, director of the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Massachusetts. The award recognizes a lifetime of achievement and professional activities that extend beyond the laboratory and greatly impact the field of public health.

Michael Pentella (right) receives the William J. Hausler Career Achievement Award from Hygienic Laboratory Director Christopher Atchison.

Pentella worked at the Hygienic Laboratory and served as an associate professor in the UI School of Public Health from 2002 until 2014 when he left to head the Massachusetts state health lab. He currently chairs the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ Biosafety and Biosecurity Committee as part of his lifelong interest in laboratory biosafety issues. In April he was presented the 2016 Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of South Florida, College of Public Health.

The Hygienic Laboratory established the Hausler Award in 2009. Its first recipient was its namesake, William Hausler, who began work at the laboratory in 1958 as associate bacteriologist in Microbiology. He was director of the Hygienic Laboratory for 30 years from 1965 until his retirement in 1995, when he became director emeritus.

Award winners in 2015 and 2016 were University of Iowa professors who worked closely with the Hygienic Laboratory. Dr. James Hanson, professor of pediatric medicine, worked with the lab and the Iowa Department of Health in developing Iowa’s nationally recognized metabolic screening program. Dr. Charles Helms, professor emeritus of internal medicine, specialized in infectious diseases, including Legionnaires’ disease. He served as the chair of the State Hygienic Laboratory Board of External Advisors from its inception in 2012 to 2016.

The award has also been presented to former Hygienic Lab staff members George Breuer, Lee Friell and Jane Getchell. Getchell, who left the lab as its assistant director after 14 years’ service, was director of the Delaware Public Health Laboratory at the time of her award. Breuer retired from the Lab in 2001 as associate director of the Environmental Health Division after working in other positions from 1984. Friell began his work at the lab in 1972, and retired as manager of the Ankeny Facility in 2012. He continues to serve Iowa public health as a lab certification compliance specialist.