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巴特菲尔德大厅三楼过时的实验室空间，以创建一个神经科学中心。 神经科学中心将共同定位神经科学教师的研究实验室，使核心教师能够更有效地运行他们的研究计划，更有效地共享科学资源。 设施的改善预期会增加神经科学专业教师之间以及与学生之间的互动，并为学生和教师提供与计算机科学，电气和机械工程以及生物工程专业的合作研究机会，这些专业与新中心的位置相邻。翻新后的实验室的教师将在神经可塑性领域进行研究和研究培训，人类认知能力和行为倾向，空间认知的性别差异，认知遗传学，行为的神经控制，以及神经系统疾病的基本分子机制。 该中心将启用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大脑的变化，即神经可塑性，这涉及获得一种新的认知技能，了解人类认知能力的个体差异和神经机制，调查飞行昆虫的行为神经控制，以了解稳定飞行的视觉控制中涉及的神经元的结构和功能，随着新的神经科学中心的成立，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，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年应学生需求而创建的。 此外，翻新后的研究设施预计将由联盟的夏季科学讲习班的参与者使用，该讲习班是一个针对传统上在科学领域代表性不足的高中生和面临经济劣势的学生的项目。

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award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project will renovate outdated laboratory space on the third floor of Butterfield Hall on the campus of Union College to create a Center for Neuroscience.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.