This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Mary Baldwin College is the largest college primarily for women in Virginia. Mary Baldwin College was founded in 1842 as Augusta Female Seminary. The James D. Pearce Science Center was conceived in the late 1960s to embody a new, hands-on, research-based approach to undergraduate science education. Pearce is the college's only building devoted to the natural sciences. With only minor modifications since it opened in 1970, the building has long since become scientifically, technologically, and functionally outmoded, making it increasingly difficult for faculty to carry out sustained research programs. Funds are provided to renovate parts of the Pearce Science Center into a state of the art collaborative research training environment, transforming the four-story, 46,000-square foot building into an interactive space that supports an emphasis on faculty-student research on campus and synergistic work with nearby larger institutions. The renovations will support research in two interdisciplinary nodes: Neuroscience and Cell Signaling and Environmental Systems Monitoring. The renovated space will provide access to instrumentation by multiple users across disciplines, and provide senior thesis research with greater visibility and prominence. The HVAC systems will be upgraded to meet current ventilation and air quality standards; electrical systems to provide improved, energy efficient lighting and adequate power for equipment; built-in casework and hoods to meet current standards of efficiency and utility; and technological infrastructure to provide modern networking capabilities. It will provide access for a growing cohort of young female scientists, including a significant percentage of women of color, to next-generation research approaches and instrumentation.
The James D. Pearce Science Center at Mary Baldwin College was constructed to embody a forward-thinking, hands-on, research-based approach to undergraduate science education. However, with only minor modifications since it opened in 1970, the building had become outmoded, providing few provisions for collaborative or interdisciplinary work, making it difficult to carry out sustained research programs. This project successfully renovated approximately 6810 square feet of research space, consolidating and centralizing prep rooms, providing access to instrumentation by multiple users across disciplines, improving animal facilities, and providing senior thesis research with greater visibility and prominence. The project involved major renovation in two areas of the building in order to establish two interdisciplinary research nodes. The project schedule was revised in June 2011 based on the successful general contractor’s proposed construction schedule, revising the project completion date to December 30, 2011 (six months ahead of the previous schedule). Construction was completed on December 22, 2011, and the completed facility was occupied on January 9, 2012. Interim project reports, including quarterly reports, FFR reports, ARRA reports, and semi-annual Davis-Bacon reports, and annual reports were submitted on time. Construction was completed within the approved budget. All success metrics were met. A total of 30 students engaged in research in the new facilities during the official twelve-month success metrics period, with another seven able to take advantage of the facilities after the early completion of construction. Faculty and student collaborators conducted coordinated environmental systems research on key pollutants in the Shenandoah Valley; implemented cellular studies using the new florescence microscopy suite to investigate the effect of LL37 on apoptosis and neuroendocrine differentiation in prostate cancer cells and the uptake of LL37-DNA complexes by cultured immune cells; and investigated the influences of hormones on brain structures in the Asian musk shrew. Of the 30 students who engaged in research in the new facilities during the twelve-month success metrics period, ten conducted independent summer and/or senior projects and another 20 participated in course-based projects. Fifty percent of the students who conducted independent summer or senior research during the metric period were from ethnically under-represented populations (four African Americans and one Latina). All but one was female.
