Renovation and expansion of core facilities for interdisciplinary urban biogeochemistry research at Towson University

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。在这个奖项中，城市环境生物地球化学实验室(UEBL)的研究实验室将进行改造。这些房间建于1976年，从未翻修过。翻新工程将把一个样品制备实验室、附近的一个岩石制备室和邻近的支持空间改造成一个综合研究实验室套件，其中一端是样品采集实验室和样品处理实验室，另一端是两个新的培养和生物实验实验室和一个高科技化学仪器实验室。Towson大学位于城乡梯度的中间，这为研究城市化对自然系统的影响，包括人类对自然系统的修改以及与人类社会制度的相互作用提供了理想的环境。生物科学、化学、地球科学和环境科学的教师和学生以多学科的方式专注于化学、物理、地质和生物过程之间的功能相互关系，这些过程控制着城市/郊区系统中元素和化合物的来源、运输、循环和命运。汤森大学的教职员工积极参与联邦政府资助的项目的研究。Towson大学是NSF的REU网站之一。翻新将增强学生进行研究的安全性，同时提供一个高效的工作空间，将提高研究效率和参与这些项目的学生的研究体验。汤森大学拥有高度多样化的学生群体，少数族裔的留校率和毕业率都超过了全国平均水平。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). In this award, research laboratories of the Urban Environmental Biogeochemistry Laboratory (UEBL) will be renovated. The rooms were built in 1976 and have never been renovated. The renovation will convert a sample preparation laboratory, a nearby rock preparation room, and adjacent support spaces into an integrated suite of research laboratories that include, at one end, a sample intake laboratory and a sample processing laboratory, and at the other, two new culture and organismal experimentation laboratories and a high-tech chemistry instrumentation laboratory. Towson University is located in the middle of an urban-to-rural gradient, which provides an ideal setting to study the effects of urbanization on natural systems, including their modification by humans and interactions with human social systems. Faculty members and students from Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Geosciences and Environmental Science focus in a multidisciplinary way on the functional interrelationships between chemical, physical, geological and biological processes that control the sources, transport, cycling and fate of elements and compounds in urban/suburban systems. Towson University faculty members are research active with federally funded programs. Towson University is one of NSF's REU sites.The renovation will enhance the safety of students conducting research while providing an efficient work space that will enhance research productivity and the research experience of students engaged in these programs. Towson University has a highly diverse student population with minority retention and graduation rates that exceed the national average.