Renovation of Interdisciplinary Labs

Delaware Valley University, Doylestown PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project will renovate three science laboratories in the Mandell Science Building on the Delaware Valley College campus to provide an Integrated Multidisciplinary Science Education and Research Facility. The new facility will provide modern research and research training space for the chemistry and biology departments as well as provide a laboratory dedicated to interdisciplinary science that will involve several of the College's other science departments. The project will support student research projects that will be undertaken in the new Student Research course, which is designed to provide meaningful research experiences for the College's primarily undergraduate student population and complement the existing Employment Program internships. The three laboratories will be renovated to include new casework, flooring, lighting, plumbing, fume hoods, and safety equipment along with updated computer connectivity. The chemistry and biology departments will each occupy a renovated laboratory in the facility to use for discipline-focused research and for incubation of interdisciplinary research that will then be allocated dedicated research space in the interdisciplinary research laboratory. The chemistry and biology labs will also support research training of undergraduates, many of whom will pursue their research ideas further in the Student Research course with a faculty advisor. The facility will enable an array of opportunities for the faculty and students to collaborate on research questions including studies of organic electronic materials, model-based design and synthesis of oligionucleotides for nanoscale circuits, mechanisms of biomass accumulation in plants, and the phylogeny of Protura and how they are related to other soil arthropod groups. The renovated laboratories will significantly improve the quality of and access to undergraduate research opportunities at Delaware Valley College. Students conducting research in the facility will be better prepared to make the transition to graduate schools or to employment in research-related jobs. The region's biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries already rely on the College for some of their technology workforce. The project will provide the science faculty members with the opportunity to expand their research activities and thus simulate more student interest in the sciences in general. Because of the demographics of the College's student body, nearly two-thirds of those students impacted will be women.