This Academic Research Facilities Modernization Program (ARFMP) award from the Research Facilities Office provides funds to Macalester College for the repair and renovation of Rice Hall of Science which houses the research and research training activities of the Departments of Biology, Geology, and Psychology. This building was constructed in 1969 and has not been renovated since that time. The ARFMP grant of $350,000 and $350,112 provided by the grantee as cost sharing will be used to modernize these research and research training facilities. This project will address the need to improve the research infrastructure by reorganizing the current laboratories in order to provide more efficient use of space and to increase the size of the space for research and research training in tissue culture, neurobiology, groundwater hydrology, and the conduct of psychology experiments. This award contributes to the infrastructure of science by providing an improved environment for the conduct of research and for the training of quality undergraduate students, a relatively high proportion of whom are from underrepresented minority groups. These laboratories, which will now be able to accommodate the substantial amount state-of-the-art science equipment that Macalester has attracted from outside sources over the past five years, are also available to students from four other colleges in the Twin Cities. The quality of the research conducted in them is of importance to the collaborative efforts of the nine other liberal arts colleges and two research universities that are fellow members of the Pew Midstates Science Consortium.
