Barnard uses science award money to revamp chem labs

Four years after receiving a lucrative grant, Barnard scientists are cashing in with new digs.

And the use of the award money was apparent on Nov. 13, when Barnard unveiled revamped labs in 804 and 809 Altschul Hall, which serve senior lecturer Alison Williams and Marisa Buzzeo, assistant professor and BC ’01.

Barnard received the award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2005. The award states that for every three dollars Barnard raises independently, the Mellon Foundation will match it with one dollar over a six-year period, ending in 2013, with the benefits manifesting before the grant’s end.

According to Barnard Provost and Dean of Faculty Elizabeth Boylan, Barnard was one of 15 schools invited to apply for this grant in the category of “excellent but under-endowed liberal arts colleges.”
“It had to be a truly transformational project,” said Boylan of the criteria for winning the award. “It had to be long-lasting, positive, and educational.”

The two laboratories are connected by an open passageway, an attempt to encourage the collaborative attitude that Williams and Buzzeo say is inherent in Barnard’s chemistry department.

“We share information and talk about teaching and developing those teaching skills [amongst faculty],” said Williams, who is in her second year of teaching chemistry here. “It’s sort of like we’re family in the department, and that includes the students. We take their development, not just as scientists but as people, too, very seriously.”

Since picking up after a hiatus in her research prompted by the construction, Williams has had one student aiding her and hopes to work with several more.

“This is a remarkably supportive and friendly place that truly provides the best that they can for the students,” said Buzzeo, who is in her first year teaching in the Barnard chemistry department. She currently has three students working with her.

She also highlighted her dual Barnard chemistry career as both student and faculty member. “I’m thrilled to be back at Barnard,” she said. “I’m glad to be building my own research program here and to be working with students now.”

Boylan added that the Altschul renovations were compelling as the first of these series of projects both because “newly-hired faculty in ... [chemistry] needed space” and because the “amount of funding allowed this project to be completed in one semester.”

But with the Altschul renovations costing about $800,000 combining independently-raised funds with the matching Mellon money, Barnard still has a long way to go in generating enough funds to fulfill the total grant three-to-one.

“We’ve had a wonderful track record of women who have gone into the sciences and medicine fields, and I hope some of those alumnae will give back to the college,” she said referring to the likelihood of completion. She named potential donors as “anyone who’s interested in whether we educate the women 10 to 20 years from now to be excellent in science.” She added, “We need good laboratories and facilities and good teachers of science so that we can be proud of all of our graduating students.”

Barnard’s science departments hope to use the next installments of the award to hire new faculty, develop curricula, and begin more renovations. These future projects will also incorporate the biological sciences and environmental science departments.

“The new space would include three modern labs for the Introductory Biology Lab courses to replace those that currently exist, improved preparation areas for these labs, and a new Introductory Biology Lab Office that is close to the elevators,” Chair of the Biological Sciences Department Brian Morton said of projects he would like to see. “The new floor would also contain a new ‘smart’ classroom to replace 903. The benefit is obvious: the spaces are now very old and replacing them with modern, efficient labs and classrooms would be wonderful.”