NSF Award
0963072
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).<br/><br/>Funds are provided to renovate and update the cell and molecular research laboratories in Boyer Hall at Arcadia University. These renovations will provide a modern, functional, and safe laboratory environment for the research faculty and their student researchers. The Biology Department is housed in Boyer Hall, a building designed to support the science departments and constructed in 1970. Over the past 40 years, minor efforts were made to retrofit newer equipment into the existing space. However, many of the systems and room conditions have degraded over the years. The renovations include (1) replacing outdated and unreliable fume hoods and adding fume hoods to those laboratories that do not currently have fume hoods; (2) providing critical emergency power to all refrigerators and freezers in research laboratory spaces; (3) installing alarms on all freezers and refrigerators to alert the Department of Public Safety and investigators in the case of a malfunction of the power supply or the refrigerator or freezer itself; (4) providing under-counter lighting and upgrading the current ceiling fixtures in all laboratories; (5) providing multiple vacuum outlets directly at multiple workstations on the laboratory benches of all laboratories; (6) installing a new pure water system and installing plumbing to bring the pure water to all of the sinks in the laboratories on the second floor of Boyer; (7) installing a supplemental HVAC system to support the facility; (8) replacing the current flooring with new impervious flooring adequate for a functioning research laboratory; (9) updating the electrical supply to these laboratories to provide sufficient electrical outlets to workstations and equipment without the need for extension cords; (10) adding data port drops to all laboratories; (11) replacing the doors on the existing cabinetry and adding sufficient shelves and cabinetry to all of the laboratories; (12) adding workstations to those laboratories which currently have very few workstations; and (13) adding a cold room with a fume hood.
