$1 million NSF grant promotes interdisciplinary research

Summary: Calvin College received a nearly $1 million Academic Research Infrastructure (ARI) Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which will promote interdisciplinary research in a new 4,450-square-foot wet lab expected to be completed in Spring 2011.

See full story: http://www.calvin.edu/news/2010-11/isrx

Chemistry, biology, physics and computer science students will have a rare opportunity of researching side-by-side thanks to a recent NSF grant.

The $951,150 ARI grant will fund a new 4,450-square-foot wet lab on the ground floor of DeVries Hall. The new lab - the Integrated Scientific Research Experimental Laboratory: the ISRx - is the latest of the science division's efforts to work across disciplines.

Calvin is one of only 21 chemistry departments in the U.S. to receive the NSF-ARI grant, which hasn't been offered since the 1990s. "Ten percent of the proposals that were submitted were funded," said chemistry professor Chad Tatko, "and they are never going to offer this again. I think it's a testament to Calvin as an institution."

The new lab will be built as an open area with separate benches for chemistry, biology, physics and computer science. The crew of the ISRx will share their space with some sophisticated equipment: a MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer, a 500-megahertz NMR spectrometer, an Apotome fluorescence microscope, a virtual-reality computer interface, a total internal reflected fluorescence microscope, a patch clamp single cell apparatus and associated microscope, two high pressure liquid chromatographs, a real-time PCR machine, along with assorted molecular biology and chemical synthesis equipment.

At the center of the ISRx are shared areas, where the scientists (and their student research assistants) can plug in their laptops and share their research with each other via 40-inch LCD panels. Around the lab's perimeter are areas for research that need to stay segregated.

"Science is about solving problems. Disciplines don't solve problems. Scientists solve problems," said Tatko. "To train our students to solve problems, we need to train them to be flexible thinkers."

The ISRx is a physical outgrowth of the Integrated Science Research Institute (ISRI), founded in 2008 through a $1.1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to foster collaboration in the sciences through research, faculty development, curriculum innovation and outreach.

Construction is underway on the new lab. For more information, contact Chad Tatko at 616-526-7584.

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Received on Tue Oct 5 10:11:00 2010