Union College Renovation Project for Faculty and Undergraduate Research Facility

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。该项目将翻新联合学院校园内巴特菲尔德大厅三楼陈旧的实验室空间，以创建一个神经科学中心。神经科学中心将把神经科学教员的研究实验室设在同一地点，使核心教员能够更有效地运行他们的研究计划，并更有效地共享科学资源。增强设施的预期结果是增加神经科学项目教职员工之间的互动，以及与计算机科学、电气和机械工程以及毗邻新中心的生物工程项目的学生和教职员工的合作研究机会。翻修后的实验室的教职员工将在神经可塑性、人类认知能力和行为倾向、空间认知方面的性别差异、认知遗传学、行为的神经控制以及神经疾病的基本分子机制等领域进行研究和研究培训。该中心将支持的研究技术包括单个神经元的细胞内记录和染料注射、飞行行为的高种子分析、行为方法学、神经成像和电生理技术。为新的神经科学中心提出的研究活动的例子包括阐明与获得一项新的认知技能有关的大脑变化，即神经可塑性，了解人类认知能力的个体差异及其背后的神经机制，研究飞行昆虫行为的神经控制以了解参与稳定飞行的视觉控制的神经元的结构和功能，以及研究特定神经疾病的基本分子机制。有了新的神经科学中心，学院的学生将有机会获得尖端的、技术先进的和多样化的研究机会，而这些机会通常只有研究生和博士后研究人员才能获得。该中心将使学院能够适应神经科学跨学科项目日益增长的研究和研究培训需求，该项目是在2003年应学生需求而设立的。此外，翻修后的研究设施预计将供联合暑期科学研讨会的参与者使用，该研讨会是为传统上在科学领域代表性较低的初中生和那些面临经济劣势的学生提供的计划。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project will renovate outdated laboratory space on the third floor of Butterfield Hall on the campus of Union College to create a Center for Neuroscience. The Center for Neuroscience will co-locate the neuroscience faculty research labs, enabling the core faculty to run their research program more effectively and share scientific resources more efficiently. An anticipated outcome of the enhanced facilities is increased interactions between neuroscience program faculty with each other and with students as well as collaborative research opportunities with student and faculty in the computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering, and bioengineering programs which are adjacent to the new Center's location.Faculty in the renovated labs will conduct research and research training in areas of neuroplasticity, human cognitive abilities and behavioral dispositions, gender differences in spatial cognition, cognitive genetics, neural control of behavior, and basic molecular mechanisms underlying neurological disorders. Research techniques to be enabled by the Center include intracellular recording and dye injection of individual neurons, high-seed analysis of flight behavior, behavioral methodologies, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological techniques. Examples of research activities proposed for the new Center for Neuroscience include elucidating brain changes, i.e. neuroplasticity, that are involved in acquiring a new cognitive skill, understanding the individual differences in human cognitive abilities and the neural mechanisms that underlie them, investigating the neural control of behavior in flying insects to understand the structure and function of neurons involved in visual control of stable flight, and studying the basic molecular mechanisms underlying specific neurological disorders.With the new Center for Neuroscience, the College's students will have access to cutting-edge, technologically advanced, and diverse research opportunities that are usually only available to graduate students and post-doctoral research staff as much larger institutions. The Center will enable the College to accommodate the growing research and research training needs of the neuroscience interdisciplinary program, which was created in response to student demand in 2003. Additionally, the renovated research facility is expected to be used by participants of Union's Summer Science Workshop, a program for rising high school students traditionally underrepresented in the sciences and those facing economic disadvantages.