Providing STEM Research Infrastructure for VanderWerf Hall at Hope College

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The award supports the renovation of the research infrastructure of VanderWerf Hall on the campus of Hope College. VanderWerf Hall was constructed in 1964, housing the departments of Physics and Mathematics. VanderWerf Hall now houses four departments: Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics. Each of these four departments is active in original research (about 30 faculty members); each research program involves researchers working with undergraduate students (about 50 per year). The research areas to be enhanced by the award range from development of electrodeposition of magnetic thin films and layered structures to fundamental nuclear physics to mathematical biology, among many others. The building's research space has evolved over the last 45 years, cannibalizing classrooms and installing enough equipment to perform research, but lacking a cohesive focus to design and even space for some departmental research efforts. Updating and renovating the scientific research spaces in VanderWerf Hall will transform cramped, inadequate facilities into safer environments and will broaden participation in research by improving access by everyone to research facilities, allowing increased use of equipment, and allowing increased access to research by undergraduate students.