Science grabs updates, new equipment

By Frances Parrish
parrishf@mytjnow.com

Chemistry majors Stephany Casasola and McKenzie Workman use current technology in lab in Sims. Labs like these are expecting new equipment to help students with their work. Photo by Jenni Buker • Special to The JohnsonianThe Biology and Chemistry labs are getting an update in technology this year and have big plans for next year.  “We are trying to keep the science laboratories fully modernized,” said Dr. Patrick Owens, professor and department chair for the chemistry department. The Chemistry department bought several pieces of lab equipment this past July and has just installed some of the items this January. 

Among the new lab instruments are two GCS Mass Spectrometers, four major Centrifuges, which can mutate cells and make protein, and a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) for organic chemistry.  Flammable storage cabinets and new fume hoods were also recently bought according to Owens. 

 “The equipment is like our library. You need a library to do history and other subjects, well you need science equipment to do science,” Owens said.  

Owens explains that the chemistry and bio-chemistry programs follow the American Chemical Society (ACS) approved program.  He further explains that the students graduating in chemistry and bio-chemistry receive ACS professional certification. 

Owens believes that it is important to keep the equipment up to date so, they can use the same technology that institutions use, like Medical school labs.  “We are primarily research focused in chemistry and biochemistry… and 95 percent of our students have done research by the time they graduated. The instruments that we use in our courses are the same instruments used in research,” Owens said. 

Owens explains that some instruments from the 1980s needed to be replaced.  Owens says that they have spent 95 percent of their money allocated to them for new equipment, and the rest is planned to be spent on a new faculty member, who specializes in growing crystals, coming in August.  She will be teaching a physical chemistry course, and money is needed for her equipment in the classroom.

 Owens also explains that there are accessories, like computer programs and utilities, that have to be bought along with the instruments.  “Our students run the instruments,” Owens said. 

Pam Jaco is the instrument manager, and she teaches the students how to use the equipment.  “This gives students the hands on experience of actually doing science,” Owens said. 

The biology department is also updating their labs. “Science especially, is a continuing investment trying to keep up with technology, and Winthrop is good about updating its technology.  We want our students to gain technological knowledge, so they can go out and compete in graduate programs and jobs,” said Dr. Dwight Dimaculangan, professor and interim chair of the biology the department.

They began buying equipment in January and their instruments have already started arriving. Dimaculangan explains that a lot of smaller pieces of equipment have been replaced such as large models of bones, muscles, and organs for the anatomy labs, cabinets and safety equipment.

 “We are replacing a lot of our microscopes in the classes, so that students will have the latest technology and the best microscopes possible,” Dimaculangan said. 

Dimaculangan said that the bigger and more expensive pieces of equipment they purchased include a fluorescence microscope in a box, the latest equipment for microscopy and a gel documentation system.

According to Dimaculangan, BIOL 203, the freshman class for biology majors, is getting a significant amount of money towards the lab equipment.  The cell biology lab is also getting updated says Dimaculangan.  He says that they are buying two fluorescence microscopes and spectrophotometers.  “We are trying to make it so that our majors and non-majors are excited about biology,” Dimaculangan said.   

Next year, Dimaculangan wants to obtain some hand-held devices that measure wind, temperature and pH.  Dimaculangan hopes to acquire these instruments and weather stations to keep at Winthrop Woods, the wetlands and the succession plots so the lab classes like 151 and 203 can be a part of long-term research projects.

According to Dimaculangan, they are also looking to update microspectroscopy in which they will buy a new scanning electron microscope for the lab and update current microscope with a digital camera. 

Dimaculangan said that the department is hoping to create a conservation track in the biology major, with a new ecologist that has background in conservation.