UWyo Magazine A New Era of Science

September 2015 | Vol. 17, No. 1

A New Era of Science

The UW Science Initiative will provide transformational funding for modern facilities and innovative programs.

By Micaela Myers

It’s been more than 45 years since the Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences buildings were built, and in recent years, many of University of Wyoming’s world-class scientists have had to conduct their impressive research in aging buildings that don’t meet their needs and in classrooms turned into labs due to lack of space. In addition, high-tech research instrumentation is currently scattered across campus with neither centralized maintenance nor necessary support infrastructure. No more. Thanks to generous support from the state, the UW Science Initiative aims to solve these problems and position the university for greater success.

In 2014, the Wyoming Governor’s UW Top-Tier Science Programs and Facilities Task Force set about working with the UW Science Initiative Leadership Team to develop a two-phase plan to address outdated science laboratories and to improve the quality of instruction and research in the core sciences of botany, zoology and physiology, molecular biology, physics and astronomy, and chemistry. About 72 percent of UW students take courses in these fundamental sciences. The plan charts a clear course for these science programs to rise to top-quartile status in the nation and builds upon Wyoming’s energy, engineering, STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—integration initiative. “[As] with engineering, the Science Initiative has the ability to be transformational, making UW a leader, making Wyoming a leader,” Gov. Matt Mead said in his 2015 State of the State Address.

Toward a Common Good

The Science Initiative began in the 2014 budget bill, when state Sen. Phil Nicholas along with Sens. Hank Coe, Tony Ross and Chris Rothfuss introduced an amendment calling for the creation of a Science Initiative task force and outlining major goals. Mead appointed 10 members to the task force who worked closely with a leadership team made up of UW science faculty members to draft a plan. “The Legislature and the state seem to respond to the idea of putting money into the university to develop a resource with a mission to improve performance and improve programs,” says Nicholas, a member of the task force and longtime supporter of UW.

“Phil Nicholas and Gov. Mead got me involved, and I believed in it,” says former Gov. Dave Freudenthal, co-chair of the task force. “The Legislature had issued a request for a proposal, so we needed to come up with something that was good for the university, fundable by the Legislature and would enjoy broad support.”

The task force and leadership team worked together to make this happen.

“I think we were a sounding board,” says Bob Grieve, a member of the task force who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in microbiology from UW and went on to earn his doctorate from the University of Florida. Grieve’s impressive science background includes 15 years at top academic institutions, where he researched immune responses to parasitic diseases and taught as a tenured professor. A co-founder of Heska Corp., Grieve also generated more than 90 scientific publications and was an inventor or co-inventor on more than 50 issued patents.

“We helped the leadership team frame the scope of what was realistic, and then we helped communicate the intent and the goals of the Science Initiative,” he says of the task force.

“The role of the task force was very valuable in that they really provided some reality checks for us,” says Greg Brown, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a botany professor who served on the task force and chaired the leadership team. “The leadership team took that advice and guidance very seriously. By doing that back and forth, I think we ended up with a very strong plan.”

The plan includes three central elements: state-of-the-art research centers to house new facilities for imaging, astronomical exploration, and advanced biological, chemical and physics research; activelearning classrooms and programs to fundamentally transform science education in the state (see page 30); and programs to stimulate research innovation and student training in emerging areas of science relevant to Wyoming’s economy (see page 40).

During the 2015 legislative session, the Legislature approved funding to begin Phase I of the Science Initiative, including $750,000 for programs, $3 million for facility design, as well as setting aside $30 million toward construction of a new building. Full funding of Phase I, as recommended by the task force, would be $100 million for capital construction and $5.4 million a year for programs.


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