By Helen Plotkin
Editor
Hendrix College will be one of four
institutions in the spotlight as the Research Corporation for Science
Advancement celebrates its 100th anniversary with a year-long series of events
that began with a gala evening at the National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C., on March 14.
RCSA is recognizing the four institutions that
have received more than $1 million from the foundation during its century of
promoting faculty and student research as a vital component of science
education. Between 1993 and 2009, Hendrix received more than $1.2 million in
grants from Research Corporation, starting with a $588,185 Department
Development Award for its chemistry and physics departments. The other three
institutions being recognized are Hope College, Denison University and Bowdoin
College.
According to Dr. Tom Goodwin, receiving the Department Development
Award was a watershed moment for Hendrix. Goodwin, Elbert L. Fausett
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, led the effort to draft the grant
proposal.
"We were the second grant recipient and the first private college
to get a Department Development Award," Goodwin said. "We applied for funding to
enhance both the chemistry and physics departments. We had at least one visit
per year from Research Corporation program officers and we had four external
consultants — two for chemistry and two for physics — working with us."
To
get a Department Development Award, a college must provide evidence that they
have a good program with the potential to move to the next level of excellence.
The College was required to demonstrate that each member of the departments
supported the effort and that the administration was willing to devote resources
to keep the improvements in place once the grant ended.
The changes initiated
by the grant have taken root and over the past two decades have not only
transformed the chemistry and physics departments, but have helped spread a
commitment to research and other experiential learning across the campus.
"It was not normal here for faculty to have sabbaticals before the Research
Corporation grant," Dr. Goodwin said, but granting sabbaticals for faculty to
hone their research skills was a requirement of the grant.
"It provided
funding for chemistry and physics to each hire a new faculty member," he
continued. "It provided money for technical support — someone to work in the
stock room, help set up labs, etc. It provided start-up funds for research."
"Some of the things that we should have had to be a top-notch liberal arts
college were put into motion by the Research Corporation grant," Goodwin said.
For example, once the administration supported sabbaticals for the chemistry and
physics departments, the practice spread across campus and support for research
in other areas also expanded.
"It came through at the right time and it
really helped us a lot. With the administration's support, we were able to make
a real difference in science education for our students," Goodwin said.
In
1993, the College was planning a major capital campaign focusing on improving
facilities for science education. At the end of the campaign, Hendrix had
replaced or remodeled academic space for all of the natural sciences area,
including renovating John. H. Reynolds Hall for mathematics and computer
sciences, constructing Acxiom Hall for the chemistry and physics departments,
and building the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Life Sciences to house the
departments of biology and psychology. Led by Dr. Warfield Teague, Willis H.
Holmes Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, faculty members were
heavily involved in creating spaces where faculty and students would work
together to expand knowledge and understanding through research. Goodwin sees
the Department Development Award as the catalyst for this expansion.
"And, I
think it was one impetus for Odyssey — the idea that experiential learning, of
which research is one example, has advanced to the point now that this is a
hallmark of the Hendrix experience," Goodwin said. "The Research Corporation
grant helped jump-start experiential learning on this campus."
The College's
first record of funding from Research Corporation dates from the late 1970s when
Dr. Goodwin received funding for a grant proposal he actually wrote before
arriving on campus in the fall of 1978. Since then — in addition to the
Department Development Award — several Hendrix professors have received what
Research Corporation calls "Single-Investigator Cottrell College Science Awards"
for projects such as Dr. Richard Rolleigh's ('67) study of transverse effects in
semi-conductor lasers, Dr. Randy Kopper's work on peanut allergies, Dr. Robert
Dunn's ring laser work, Dr. Andres Caro's research on reactive oxygen species,
and, most recently, Dr. Courtney Hatch's ('00) 2009-11 grant for her project
titled "Heterogeneous Processing of Mineral Aerosol by Reactive Gases in the
Earth's Atmosphere."
In 2004, Dr. Liz Gron (who is the new chemistry faculty
member hired with support from the 1993 department development grant) led
efforts to acquire $100,000 from RCSA to fund a five-year proposal to strengthen
the physical sciences at Hendrix through research and recruitment.
The impact
of Research Corporation's support continues to ripple through the Hendrix
community, improving the quality of teaching and learning across the campus.
That should please Frederick Gardner Cottrell, a scientist, inventor and
philanthropist, who founded RCSA in 1912. His concept for the foundation was to
"provide catalytic funding for grants, conferences and advocacy to support early
career faculty, innovative ideas for research, and building tomorrow's academic
cultures."
For more information about Research Corporation, visit the
foundation's website at www.rescorp.org.