Four faculty received Leap Laboratory Renovation awards through NDSU’s Advance FORWARD project. The lab renovation grants were funded with Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research money, provided through the Office of the Vice President for Research, Creative Activities and Technology Transfer. These lab renovation grants are not an ongoing component of the Leap Research Grants available through FORWARD, but represent a unique institutional contribution toward the achievement of the FORWARD project goals. The renovations are expected to be completed by October.
The recipients of these grants are Birgit Pruess, assistant professor in veterinary and microbiological sciences; Sangita Sinha, assistant professor in chemistry and biochemistry; Annie Tangpong, assistant professor in mechanical engineering; and Yechun Wang, assistant professor in mechanical engineering.
The award to Pruess and her co-principal investigators – Penelope Gibbs, assistant professor; Margaret Khaitsa, associate professor; and Jane Schuh, assistant professor – will fund the conversion of a storage room into additional lab space. Conversion includes installing countertops and hanging cabinets; making electrical changes; and putting in water, air and gas lines. The additional lab space will allow these four faculty to work with an increased number of students.
Sinha’s award will fund lab renovations that support her plan to establish the first macromolecular crystallography laboratory in North Dakota. Her proposal includes renovations to one lab in IACC and two in Dunbar. The space in IACC will be changed from a teaching lab to a “wet research” lab space with the installation of overhead lab shelving and an extra-wide countertop to accommodate a centrifuge. In Dunbar, one lab will be reconfigured to accommodate a new diffractometer and an emergency power backup will be installed. In the other Dunbar lab, a portion of which has been vacant, three cubicles with blackout curtains will be added.
The lab renovation award for Tangpong provides replacements for two air conditioners in her lab/teaching space in Dolve Hall.
Wang’s lab renovation award will be used to improve a lab in Dolve. Renovations include a new lab sink, a four-foot wide fume hood, an eight-foot chemical resistant experimental countertop and supporting cabinets. The air makeup facility in the lab area also will be upgraded to provide a sufficient air supply for fume hoods.