{"id":5712,"date":"2008-09-02T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2008-09-02T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/explorebates.wordpress.com\/?p=50"},"modified":"2016-02-04T15:45:48","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T20:45:48","slug":"commitment-to-sciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2008\/09\/02\/commitment-to-sciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Commitment to sciences helps Bates land instrumentation award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href='https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2008\/09\/henkes-xk8s5350.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2008\/09\/henkes-xk8s5350-400x263.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium alignright\" alt=\"Gregory Henkes &#039;08 (with glasses) and Ben Levin &#039;09 in two labs that allow them to work with Professor of Biology William Ambrose on clam research.\n\nGreg Henkes &#039;08 displays vials used to isolate and identify specific amino acids from the shells of Serripes groenlandicus. In typical cooperative spirit, Henkes and biologist Will Ambrose rely on geologist Bev Johnson&#039;s expertise in this area as they investigate whether amino acids are a proxy for changing food sources in the Artic.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bates College has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation to purchase\u00a0seven scientific instruments that will enhance interdisciplinary collaborations among science faculty and research opportunities for students.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are delighted to receive this award from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation and anticipate that it will play a vital role in science research and teaching,&#8221; said Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen. &#8220;The criteria for the award are a perfect fit for Bates.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Hansen noted in the grant application last year that because of Bates&#8217; new general education requirements focusing on interdisciplinary learning, &#8220;the science faculty intentionally selected equipment to foster cross- and interdisciplinary collaborations, specifically in environmental geochemistry, the biomedical sciences and physics\/physical chemistry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of the grant proposal reviewers mentioned that he and others were impressed with the College&#8217;s commitment to the sciences from the top administrators,&#8221; said Robert L. Pallone, director of corporate and foundation relations at Bates. &#8220;In a competitive field of college and university applicants, that certainly helped.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pamela J. Baker &#8217;69, the Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biology and director of faculty research and scholarship, described how the science faculty met and together developed a list of equipment that would advance teaching and student research at Bates. &#8220;From the list, we asked for those pieces of equipment that would serve more than one department or program,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It is important that this equipment will be shared across departments and programs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The grant covers the cost of seven scientific instruments used by the biology, chemistry, geology and physics departments. But one \u2014 a specialized scanning electron microscope \u2014 accounts for $225,000 of the total cost.<\/p>\n<p>A scanning electron microscope used for high resolution magnification of samples will tie in with Bates&#8217; new Imaging Center. It will have the capacity for energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for elemental analysis or chemical characterization of a sample. Both will be used by students and faculty in the biology and geology departments and in the environmental studies program.<\/p>\n<p>Other instruments to be purchased with the grant over the next five years include a multi-chamber respirometer system, an implantable telemetry system, an X-ray diffractometer, a particle size analyzer, an RF spectrum analyzer and quantitative polymerase chain reaction instrumentation.<\/p>\n<p>The instruments are expected to be used by multiple disciplines in 40 courses that enroll about 800 students \u2014 benefitting science and non-science majors alike.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/images\/blank.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"blank image\" width=\"20\" height=\"5\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bates College has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation to purchase seven scientific instruments that will enhance interdisciplinary collaborations among science faculty and research opportunities for students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11011],"tags":[6309,7907],"class_list":["post-5712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-life","category-awards","tag-natural-science","tag-sherman-fairchild-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5712"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89241,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5712\/revisions\/89241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}