University to define how to use proposed science center

The University is in the process of defining how an on-campus science center will be utilized across the science and engineering departments.

As one of the focuses of the 20-year Campus Plan, the science center would be located on I Street between 22nd and 23rd streets, where a parking garage now sits. Linda Gallo, a biochemistry professor and the chair of the Physical Facilities Committee of the Faculty Senate, said science and engineering programs conducive to interdisciplinary study would likely be housed in a science center.

The proposal is pending approval from the city before construction can begin.

The science center would cater to a trend of increasing collaboration between science and engineering, Gallo said.

The technologies used in modern sciences like bioengineering and genome research, for example, require collaboration between many disciplines.

Gallo said a new science center would allow science research to be much more visible on campus.

“When people come to the University, they can see science on display,” she said.

In April, Executive Vice President and Treasurer Louis Katz said that revenue generated from the use of Square 54 would be exclusively used to construct a new science center.

Columbian College Dean Diana Lipscomb said the current science buildings do not have the power supplies or computer infrastructure to support modern science research. She said lack of space has limited the amount of research the science departments have been able to do.

“Some faculty could get another grant, but there isn’t enough space for research,” she said. “The sciences bring in a lot of big grants, and they could bring in more.”

In 2004, the Physical Facilities Committee of the Faculty Senate identified a new science center as the most pressing academic building need.

“I’m especially interested in seeing the undergraduate lab facilities be upgraded for a University that costs as much as this one does,” said Robert Donaldson, a biology professor.

-Elise Kigner

Elliot School adds two professors

The Elliott School of International Affairs added two security policy professors this year.

Holger Schmidt, a political science and international affairs assistant professor, is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Columbia University specializing in international conflict management, peacekeeping and transnational security. In 2005, Schmidt was awarded the Committee for the Analysis of Military Options and Strategy Graduate Student Paper Award, which recognizes the best graduate student paper in the field of strategic studies, according to a University press release.

Paul Williams is an international affairs visiting associate professor who has taught at the University of Wales in the United Kingdom, and has published articles on issues such as peacekeeping in Africa and British and South African foreign policy. William’s next publications include: “The U.N. Security Council and the Question of Humanitarian Intervention in Darfur” and “The Peacekeeping System, Britain, and the 1994 Rwandan Genocide,” according to the University.

-Lizzie Wozobski