Thuy Lam, Senior Programmer/Analyst

The Orange County Water District is very pleased to announce that Thuy Lam, Senior Programmer/Analyst, is the 2023 Employee of the First Quarter.

Over the last 2.5 years, Thuy has operated as the lead programmer to help rebuild the 20+-year old Aspen Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Aspen is no longer supported by its original developer and had become increasingly unstable and unreliable. The LIMS is crucial to laboratory’s workflow, sample tracking, and quality control, managing samples from the time they arrive all the way through data reporting. Over a 2.5 year period, Thuy utilized her expert technical abilities to completely rebuild the LIMS on an updated platform while allowing continued operations and thoughtful transition away from the outdated version.

Thuy took feedback from lab staff to not only ensure core functionality was maintained in the newly-titled Citrus LIMS, but also incorporated many improvements to both the underlying structure of the software and enhancing various aspects to increase the lab’s efficiency. One such example is the development of a new manual data entry tool lab staff can utilize via tablet computers for mobile data entry, reducing the need for handwritten records into lab notebooks that subsequently must be re-entered into the LIMS system.

With the initial development of Citrus LIMS now completed, the lab has now fully transitioned away from the outdated Aspen LIMS, marking a major milestone that could not have been possible without Thuy’s dedication to the project. Thuy is a truly committed District employee that is always more than willing to go above and beyond and is highly deserving of the Employee of the Quarter award.

Congratulations, Thuy!