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University of Wyoming to unveil new science initiative building mid-March University of Wyoming (UW) students and researchers soon will have access to one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the nation with the completion of the $100 million Science Initiative Building. The 153,000-squarefoot, five-level structure joins several other UW facilities opened in recent years in the northwest section of campus focused on both undergraduate education and cutting-edge research in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The project aims to help propel UW into R1 status in the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, the top tier of American research universities, while also elevating the UW student experience. “The Science Initiative Building is a new place where students can work directly in cutting-edge faculty laboratories and experience hands-on, active learning with hundreds of their peers,” UW President Ed Seidel says. “The facility also is the face of a new northwest corridor at UW which enables our students to experience handson learning in the introductory teaching laboratories of the Michael B. Enzi STEM Facility; the Engineering Education and Research Building for designing new tools for research; the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center for work in core UW laboratories measuring genomes and the various molecules and their isotopes cycling through our biosphere; and the Energy Innovation Center which is focused on finding solutions to the world’s energy challenges.” A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled March 24, with speakers including Seidel and Science Initiative leaders. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 8:15 a.m., followed by tours of the new building. The public is invited. Installation and movement of equipment, faculty offices and furnishings will take place over the summer,
with full use of the building expected for the fall 2022 semester. The Science Initiative Building will be home to modern laboratory research space for faculty and students; a state-of-the-art greenhouse and plant growth areas; the Model Organism Research Facility; the Center for Advanced Scientific Instrumentation; and an active-learning classroom and collaborative spaces for undergraduate and graduate education and research. “The Science Initiative Building is a welcome and much-needed expansion of life-science research space on campus. The open-concept design of the labs will allow researchers like myself to realize new efficiencies and establish new collaborative relationships,” says Professor Jay Gatlin, head of UW’s Department of Molecular Biology. “I get particularly excited when I think about how my lab’s research will benefit from the Center for Advanced Scientific Instrumentation. This center will provide access to amazing cutting-edge instrumentation previously unavailable to researchers at UW and will likely have a profound impact on research across campus and throughout the state of Wyoming.” Origins In 2014, a panel of accomplished scientists, industry leaders and other professionals endorsed a plan to improve science education and student success at UW while creating world-class facilities to propel research on issues important to the state and nation. The Wyoming Governor’s Top-Tier Science Programs and Facilities Task Force, chaired by former Gov. Dave Freudenthal and distinguished UW alumna Carol Brewer, emphasized collaboration among multiple disciplines by assembling researchers into a single complex with shared instrumentation, technical support and collaboration spaces. With appropriations by
Facility tour – Greg Brown, a UW botany professor and executive operations director of UW’s Science Initiative Building, gives legislators and others a tour of the state-of-the-art greenhouses in the new building. Brown describes the 6,000-square-foot Plant Growth Facility complex as “the best to be found west of the Mississippi and, possibly, the entire U.S.” University of Wyoming photo
the Wyoming Legislature and then-Gov. Matt Mead, ground was broken for the building at the corner of Ninth and Lewis streets in November 2018. The construction manager is Jackson-based GE Johnson. In addition to a new building, the taskforce’s 2014 report called for robust training and mentoring programs for science department faculty members in
active-learning practices, along with more research opportunities for students through enhanced faculty mentoring, training programs and internships. Since then, the Science Initiative’s Learning Actively Mentoring Program has trained over 100 faculty members and graduate students in active learning – an instructional approach using collaborative work among
small groups of students and instructors, with traditional lectures replaced by a variety of learning opportunities including short interactive lectures, small-group discussions, case studies and web-based opportunities outside of class. At the same time, the Science Initiative’s Wyoming Research Scholars Program has paired 154 UW undergraduate students with faculty mentors to par-
ticipate in their own cuttingedge research projects. Additionally, Science Initiative “roadshows” have taken active-learning experiences to kindergarten through 12th grade schools across Wyoming. The Science Initiative’s Faculty Innovation Grant Program has been launched to stimulate and bolster submission of interdisciplinary Please see UW on page C2