Upgrading Middlebury College's Floating Laboratory: A State-of-the-Art Research Vessel

Middlebury College, Middlebury VT

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project replaces the R/V Baldwin, a floating research laboratory used by Middlebury College in Vermont for hands-on, experiential, research training of students on Lake Champlain. The R/V Baldwin has reached the end of its useful life and will be replaced by a new, larger, more highly capable, "green", and seaworthy vessel outfitted to allow college student and faculty research projects to be carried out. Middlebury College is an undergraduate institution that is widely considered as an important engine for educating and training undergraduates who continue on to graduate school in the environmental sciences. The new vessel will double the number of people that can be present on the boat at any given time. Unlike the present vessel, which is restricted to shallow parts of the lake, the new ship will be able to fully navigate the lake, which will dramatically increase the types and numbers of research projects that can be carried out. The new vessel will impact research in disciplines as diverse as geology, biology, environmental science, and chemistry, enabling research in areas as diverse as hydrodynamics, paleoanthropology, paleoclimate, sedimentology, geophysics, aquatic ecology, and environmental chemistry. Broader impacts of the project include increasing the infrastructure for interdisciplinary science and the research training of large numbers of undergraduate students at Middlebury College and other local colleges and universities in Vermont, which is an EPSCoR state. It will also provide jobs in Washington State where the ship will be built. Other impacts include improved environmental assessment and monitoring of the 6th largest freshwater lake in the nation; one that serves the recreational and economic needs of a large number of people in the northeastern US. Research training of K-12 teachers who will use the vessel will be implemented. Public outreach using data collected by researchers using the vessel will be carried out through involvement with local maritime museums.