This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This award supports renovation of laboratory space in Monsanto Hall on the campus of Saint Louis University. Under the present conditions, the laboratories have large temperature fluctuations, poor humidity control, excessive dust and leakage of air and water from windows, and condensation dripping from pipes in the ceiling. Funding from this award will enable the Department to complete renovation of aging labs, improve the environmental quality of the space and accuracy of experimental results, and increase the amount of available research space by renovating old, laboratories currently used for research. The research areas that will be directly affected include biochemistry, the synthesis and application of nanomaterials, the synthesis and characterization of metallacarborane complexes, the effects of self-organization (such as oscillations and pattern formation) on the reactive properties of complex electrochemical systems, studies of rotational diffusion, non-covalent interactions of aromatic compounds, the use of microchip-based analytical systems to study various biological systems, molecular biology, bioelectrocatalysis, and the thermodynamics and structural features of RNA motifs.
In addition to graduate and undergraduate students, the Chemistry Department involves high school students from across the St. Louis area in research. The location of the University within the urban core of St. Louis enables natural participation from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in science and technology. The laboratory improvements will allow training of more undergraduate, graduate, and high school students.
During the grant award we conducted renovations, repairs, and improvements to the Chemistry research laboratories in Monsanto Hall at Saint Louis University. The air handling system was very outdated. We updated the research laboratories with variable air volume boxes (VAV) to improve the air quality in all the research laboratories. The VAV boxes also improved the energy efficiency of the building, saving money and energy for the University. Leaking windows were replaced with insulating windows to prevent untreated outside air from flowing into the building. This is a further energy savings. The overall air handling system now includes a central fume hood fan system to improve the air flow in all research laboratories in combination with the VAV boxes. This gives a much more uniform air flow in all the fume hoods, creating a much safer working environment for students. In addition, the new system is significantly more energy efficient than the old decentralized air system without the VAV boxes. 1000 square feet of space was renovated in 4 laboratories with introduction of new fume hoods, cabinets, and full lab support systems. This allows us to serve a larger population of undergraduate and graduate research students. These students are now working in the labs. There is a substantial improvement in environment in all the research laboratories. The humidity level has decreased significantly. This provides more reliability in all chemical and biochemical measurements, syntheses, and experiments. The leaking air from windows has been greatly reduced. Temperature control in the building has also improved greatly. The improvements have been so successful that the university is now investing in similar improvements to the teaching laboratories in Monsanto Hall. In addition to safety enhancements and increased energy efficiency, the renovated laboratory spaces have been beneficial in recruiting new undergraduate and graduate students to the chemistry department. Prospective undergraduate and graduate students routinely visit their schools of interest before enrolling, and the renovated laboratory spaces are typically on the tours of Monsanto Hall. While we cannot unequivocally assign successful recruiting to a single factor, we feel confident that recent increases of quality and quantity in the undergraduate and graduate chemistry classes in recent years is related to improvements in the physical space in which these students will work and learn.
