In order to publicize federal funding for the sciences at Wesleyan, the University recently launched a new website with the title “Wesleyan is Tops in Science.” The site, www.wesleyan.edu/sciences, reveals that Wesleyan is ranked first among small liberal arts colleges and universities in annual federal funding for scientific research, as shown by data from the National Science Foundation and published in US News and World Report.
“The University wanted to publicize this information and posted it on the University web site,” said Chemistry Professor Joseph Bruno, the Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. “That doesn’t mean we’re the best undergraduate science institution, it means we’re best among the top liberal arts colleges at raising federal funds. This is critical for allowing research in the sciences, which is very expensive.”
The large amount of grant money received allows students to engage in research with faculty, publish, and get summer research jobs, according to Bruno.
Bruno said that more than 60 articles co-authored by Wesleyan undergraduates have come out in peer-reviewed scientific journals in the last 4 to 5 years.
“I think this status was well known to those of us faculty who have chosen Wesleyan as our home,” said Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Robert Lane. “All of our science faculty comes from the very best scientific laboratory settings in the world.”
Lane has received a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant for about 1.7 million dollars over five years. He said that he has two graduate and three undergraduate students working for him in his lab.
“Most colleges just don’t have the critical mass to justify the expense of important equipment,” Lane said. “Wesleyan is able to have it both ways because of its commitment to research and because of its support of post-graduate programs.”
Lane said that the faculty publishes both a similar quantity and quality of articles as do faculty in medical schools and therefore can receive competing grants. This allows new technologies to be brought to campus.
Associate Professor of Biology Janice Naegele has an NIH grant of $1.3 million over five years. With the help of the grant money that she has received, Naegele said she has trained over 30 undergraduate students in her lab since 1991. She said that many of her students have gone on to prestigious graduate and medical schools.
Naegele said that the University administration and trustees are dragging their feet in regards to the construction of a new sciences building. She said that the administration does not expect to complete the project for another six or seven years.
“The science buildings at Wesleyan are falling sadly behind the state of the art facilities at many other top rate liberal arts colleges,” Naegele said. “We just received the devastating news that the administration and trustees do not feel that this new building is warranted.”
She said that the Administration and trustees have not fully supported the sciences despite the fact that more University science students go to graduate school than any other peer school.
“It’s tragic really, because a new flagship science building at Wesleyan could really change this place for the better and bring Wesleyan into the forefront of prestigious undergraduate institutions,” Naegele said.
“At the end of the day, it is largely the quality of research that determines funding levels,” said Chair of the Biology Department Professor Michael Weir. “Our significant funding levels reflect the high quality of research at Wesleyan. I think that the synergy between our teaching and our scholarship contributes to the high quality of our research.”
“All of this makes Wesleyan unique in the world, because we have managed to be both an excellent undergraduate institution and an excellent scientific research institution,” Lane said. “Almost nobody but us can offer both.”
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