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ChBE Machinist Wins UH Staff Excellence Award
By
Esmeralda Fisher
Costales
Costales

John Costales, lab supervisor machinist in the University of Houston Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was honored last month as a recipient of the university’s Staff Excellence Award.

Each year, Staff Excellence Awards are given to nominated employees who consistently demonstrate superior job performance and meritorious service and dedication to the university. Costales was among this year's recipients who were recognized at the Staff Excellence Awards luncheon last month at the Hilton Hotel.

Costales, employed at UH for eight years, turns engineering concepts into reality. He creates prototypes for both undergraduate and graduate research: anything students need to perform their experiments. His projects run the gamut from simple to complicated, such as guiding the undergraduate Chem-E Car team, or building reactors for Professor Vincent Donnelly’s plasma research, a current project.

Costales was surprised to walk into what he thought was a typical staff meeting, and find his colleagues there to congratulate him for winning the award. “It was quite an honor,” he said. Prior to working at UH, Costales has had a varied background in a family automotive machine shop, as a safety diver at NASA, a Dr. Pepper truck driver, and at Wholesale Electric. 

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