A grant has been awarded to Dr. Jack Grubaugh at the University of Memphis to construct living quarters at the Meeman Biological Field Station (MBFS) in Shelby County, Tennessee. The primary missions of the field station are to: 1) provide a unique, field-oriented curriculum to urban undergraduate students, and 2) serve as a focal point for ecological studies of the lower Mississippi River, its floodplains and tributaries. While use of the station as both a teaching and research venue has increased over the past five years, development of these missions has been hampered by the lack of living quarters to house students, instructors, and visiting researchers.
This grant will support the first phase of a two-phase plan to provide critically needed living quarters at MBFS. This first phase includes the construction of a dormitory to accommodate approximately 24 students, instructors, and researchers. In addition, a kitchen area and a multi-purpose dining and meeting facility will be constructed in this first phase of the project. Thus, the first phase will provide fully functional living quarters to support station use. The second phase of construction will focus on the development of additional student and faculty housing.
This grant will greatly enhance the teaching and research missions of MBFS. The living quarters will allow University of Memphis faculty to increase the number of field courses taught at the station and to offer courses on a year-round basis. Furthermore, housing will eliminate the need for time-consuming daily commutes from Memphis in order to conduct on-site research or to launch research efforts on the river and floodplains of the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley.
