ARI-R2: Laboratory and Ancillary Space Upgrade to Support Undergraduate Faculty-Student Research in Physics

Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter MN

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The award supports the upgrade and renovation of undergraduate research laboratories on the lower level of the 19-year-old F.W. Olin Hall of Science at Gustavus Adolphus College. The proposed renovation will impact all members of the physics department in that it will both enable cutting-edge research and research training in each laboratory and further strengthen the entire physics department research facility. A new cyber-enabled acoustics laboratory and a research laboratory for a new faculty member, dedicated to the cooling and trapping of polar molecules, will play a particularly strategic role in enhancing the research capacity of the physics department and in increasing research training for undergraduate students. Enhanced research capabilities will also provide greater research training opportunities for students in physics, chemistry and general education. Anticipated collaborations with research universities and other liberal arts colleges will broaden the scope and level of the department's research, and likewise provide Gustavus students with opportunities to contribute to and benefit from well-known research groups.