Repair and Renovation of Faculty Laboratory Facilities at a Comprehensive Public University

Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau MO

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This award supports a renovation project to provide critical repairs and renovations to a 50-year old laboratory facility utilized by Chemistry and Physics faculty researchers at a comprehensive, public university. The renovation will combine related research areas and specializations into two research centers within the department, one devoted to analytical and forensic chemistry and one devoted to materials research. Laboratory equipment and instrumentation will also be grouped together strategically in the centers so that they are readily available to the faculty and students most likely to use them in their work. Each research center will be assembled during the renovation by the consolidation of smaller research labs and other rooms. The renovation will also provide safe, sufficient facilities for current faculty research, will improve recruitment of new research faculty, and will provide opportunities to mentor and integrate student trainees in faculty research. The majority of the University's service area includes a rural, economically depressed region of the Mississippi Delta and Missouri 'Bootheel," in which higher than average poverty and unemployment rates, coupled with geographic isolation, limit opportunities for educational attainment and economic stability.