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Task Force set about working with the UW Science Initiative Leadership Team to develop a two-phase plan to address outdated science laboratories and to improve the quality of instruction and research in the core sciences of botany, zoology and physiology, molecular biology, physics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.
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.
With the Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences buildings constructed in the late 1960s and the Aven Nelson Building completed in 1924, there was a clear need for modern laboratory, collaboration and teaching space.
“Back in the early 1980s when I attended UW, the facilities I worked in then were antiquated and out of date. I can remember being flooded out of my grad school office in the Aven Nelson Building. Those are the same facilities that people are still using today,” says task force co-chair Carol Brewer, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UW, as well as her doctorate in botany. She went on to become associate dean of the University of Montana’s (UM) College of Arts and Sciences and is a professor emerita of biology at UM, as well as the founder of Prairie Research Group LLC.
In addition to outdated labs and classrooms, UW researchers in the core sciences currently operate $10 million worth of sensitive imaging and microscopy instrumentation, which is scattered across campus in aging buildings.
Enter the proposed 170,000 square feet of new facilities, which will house the Center for Advanced Scientific Imaging (CASI), the Center for Integrative Biology Research (CIBR), active-learning classrooms, offices and collaborative “collision” spaces. In particular, these facilities will catalyze collaborations between faculty members in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Department of Botany—whose laboratories are currently located on opposite ends of UW’s campus—and among faculty members in the Department of Chemistry, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Department of Zoology and Physiology whose research utilizes scientific imaging technologies. Planning for the facilities will begin this year.
“A lot of new, creative ideas come about when people from different backgrounds merge,” Brown says. “We call these collision spaces.”
In addition to faculty members and students coming together in planned collision spaces, lab space in the new building will be shared and flexible, inviting additional collaboration and fostering efficiency.
“It’s the way of future problem-solving,” says botany and molecular biology Professor Cynthia Weinig. “The toughest questions to answer require an integrative approach.”
“Molecular biology is currently a mile away,” adds Danny Dale, head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. “If we have molecular biology with us, it would help germinate new ideas.”
Shared lab space is also more efficient. “With a co-located center like CASI, you can have people share a liquid helium recycler, for example, instead of each person investing in one for their lab,” Dale says.
CASI will co-locate UW’s imaging scientists, their student teams and unique instrumentation in a state-of-the-art, staffed laboratory. With new and existing imaging equipment in a specialized and maintained center, these scientists can achieve unprecedented sensitivities and efficiencies in probing the fundamental interactions among atoms, molecules and cells that underlie all next-generation technologies.
“Just the act of centralizing it will greatly help,” says leadership team member and chemistry Professor Dean Roddick, adding that he recently learned about equipment on campus he wasn’t aware existed. Other equipment is unnecessarily duplicated.
“We get calls from across the state asking us to help solve problems, and we often don’t know who to direct them to because everything is so scattered,” Roddick says. “This well-defined instrumentation facility will have staff taking care of instruments and coordinating everything. That will help with outreach across the state.”
The facility will also make UW more attractive for federally funded grants. “When we’re applying for grants from organizations like the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, we can say this is a centralized, centrally supported facility that will be responsible for the oversight of such equipment,” says Donal Skinner, head of the Department of Zoology and Physiology.
“In chemistry and physics, we’re now able to visualize things at the atomic level,” he continues. “We can say that this center goes from atomic to cosmic.”
As the Science Initiative report states: “Our understanding of physical and biological structures at the atomic and molecular scale will become the basis for new generations of solar cells, nanocomputers, genetic therapies and solutions in agriculture and the environment. … These same technologies will be used in remote sensing applications to reveal the presence of organisms or pathogens in locations inaccessible to humans, such as ocean depths, volcanic basins and other planets.”
“New technology is really driving science, and technology is not cheap,” Skinner says. “Part of the Science Initiative is funding for new equipment that we don’t currently have—things like super-resolution microscopy, which several scientists are crying out for. It’s important that we get that to be able to maintain competitiveness.”
The center will host configurable, state-of-the-art rooms for existing and new microscopy and imaging instruments. This equipment requires modern infrastructure. For example, CASI will be located near the bottom of the new building.
“The reason it would be downstairs is for vibrational damping,” Dale says. “Vibrational damping is one of the things you want when you do sensitive imaging at really small and atomic levels. You don’t want to have anything moving at all. You also want to have a steady electrical supply—a constant level of voltage. Electromagnetic shielding is important as well. For example, you don’t want radio waves interfering with your detectors.”
With CIBR, UW aims to establish a center for research innovation in the core biological sciences where UW’s world-renowned faculty in botany, molecular biology and zoology can conduct research jointly with collaborators from chemistry and physics. Core facilities within CIBR will include state-of-the-art plant growth and staffed laboratory animal research facilities.
Such facilities rely heavily on exacting environmental controls, and a modern animal care facility further requires secure access to ensure proper quarantine, security and safety.
Current facilities are lacking in these areas, such as older greenhouses without the necessary climate-control sensitivities. “The new plant greenhouse facilities would be on the top of the new building,” Weinig says. “We have a lot of important producers in Wyoming, and statewide we can be better in plant biology. It’s very important from an agricultural perspective.” (See more about Weinig’s research on page 37.)
“In order for the university to be competitive in science—both research and teaching—and to benefit the state, the sciences needed to be improved,” Grieve says.
“Science in the 21st century is exploding—everything from molecular biology to space science,” he continues. “Every day, there’s something new. That’s all going to be harnessed by someone. New technologies and new businesses will evolve from those new discoveries.
“With this initiative, UW is going to be a magnet for in-state students to come to learn and grow in science, and they will develop businesses that can thrive without ever having to leave the state of Wyoming.”
“Anything that you’re capable of driving to the level of excellence—which is where this is headed—has great benefits for the students because they’re more employable,” Freudenthal agrees. “It also helps the faculty in that we not only retain good faculty but are able to attract other great faculty.”
“I’m just so impressed with the leadership of Gov. Mead and Gov. Freudenthal—that they, along with their colleagues in the Wyoming Legislature, had the vision to move this initiative forward. Other states in the nation should be so lucky,” Brewer says.
With centers of excellence that will attract top scientists from around the world and train students in state-of-the-art science and technology, the Science Initiative is truly transformational, setting UW on a path of success for decades to come.
