By the Gazette-Times and OSU News Service | Posted: Wednesday, January 9, 2008 12:00 am
The soon-to-be-built Linus Pauling Science Center at Oregon State University will boast a state-of-the-art learning environment - both for students in the Corvallis campus and online - thanks to a $700,000 grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust.
"This will allow us to create a high-tech environment in those spaces that we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise," said Sherm Bloomer, dean of the College of Science.
The grant will enable teachers to use technology to pioneer methods for bringing live laboratory experiments to classroom auditoriums. It also will make lab-based learning available to students in OSU's distance learning programs.
"The Linus Pauling Science Center will provide opportunities for many of Oregon's future doctors, pharmacists, environmental and food scientists and science teachers to gain fundamental knowledge and skills," Doug Stamm, CEO of Meyer Memorial Trust, said in an OSU news release.
Groundbreaking on the center, for which the university has received $77 million in private and public donations, is set for the fall.
"That's what we're hoping for. We're just starting architectural discussions now," Bloomer said.
The 120,000-square-foot structure will cost an estimated $62.5 million to build, and it will be the most expensive academic facility ever for OSU.
The new facility will contain classroom and laboratory space for undergraduates, graduate students and researchers who are studying chemistry, biochemistry and the life sciences.
It also will house the Linus Pauling Institute, named for the 1922 OSU graduate who remains the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes. The institute's research looks at promoting health through diet.
One chemistry lab and one introductory biology lab at the center will be structured to deliver distance lab education, which will permit off-campus students to observe - and even to participate in - lab exercises. While lectures are regularly broadcast from classrooms, extending laboratory sessions off-campus has not been possible.
Funds from the Meyer Memorial Trust also are expected to outfit a 200-seat teaching auditorium with advanced presentation technology.
The Meyer Memorial Trust was created by the late Fred G. Meyer, founder of the retail chain that bears his name on stores throughout the Pacific Northwest.
The center is a major initiative in The Campaign for OSU, the university's first comprehensive fundraising campaign, which seeks to raise $625 million.