Tufts will build an integrated biology and engineering building in an attempt to facilitate greater multidisciplinary collaboration and remedy the current space deficiency in both departments.
The project is still in its planning stages and is not expected to begin soon. The building is tentatively planned to be built on or near Boston Avenue, close to the Science and Technology Center.
The biology department has been battling with space constraints for over a decade, according to Juliet Fuhrman, the department chair. "I got here in 1991, and even then we knew that the biology program was being squeezed," she said.
The lack of classroom and research space for students and professors in both disciplines has become more pronounced in recent years. "Right now we wouldn't be able to hire anybody new," Fuhrman said. "We are absolutely full. We don't have a single open laboratory."
Some professors have even had to sacrifice their research rooms. "Right now many of our senior faculty have actually given up their laboratory space so that younger faculty members can have a space where they can get their research started," Fuhrman said.
Provost Jamshed Bharucha, a major proponent of the new building, agreed.
"The space that [the integrated lab] will provide is sorely needed by our students and our faculty," he said.
With the new building, administrators hope they will be able to attract more faculty members to both departments.
The integrated lab will provide new research space for professors and students, both graduate and undergraduate. "It's not a classroom building, but there will be teaching laboratories for biology classes that have a lab section," Bharucha said. "It will also have seminar rooms."
Fuhrman similarly hopes to have a mixture of teaching and research space within the lab. "What we would love to see is a place where both teaching and research can go together side by side," she said.
Vice Provost Peggy Newell said that Tufts has always tried to integrate research and teaching. "This new building offers us even more opportunity to do more of that," she said.
Along with providing space for both teaching and research, the integrated lab is intended to strengthen collaboration between disciplines. In sharing the same space, the biology department and parts of the School of Engineering will have a greater opportunity to work on joint research projects and share creative ideas.
"I think that the vision is to have a space where various research programs from these two disciplines can interact daily," Fuhrman said. "The idea is that we can promote interdisciplinary collaboration ... when resources from both departments are right next to each other."
A recent example of such a project is the development of the world's first soft-bodied robots carried out by Tufts researchers, Bharucha said. He called this "a brilliant example of what happens when professors and students come together from different disciplines." The project is currently featured in an exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Bharucha said the integrated lab will help bring new professors to Tufts. "With our current facility in Barnum/Dana, it's difficult to attract new faculty," he said. "The new building will put us in a better position to attract new faculty."
Similarly, the new lab may help the university pull in better students. "I think that having great faculty will help to attract great students - I think that it has already," Newell said.
"I do know that many students that come in with strong high school backgrounds in biological sciences have seen better facilities" than Tufts' current ones, Fuhrman added. She cited the fact that a large part of the biology complex is not handicapped-accessible as an example of one of the facility's shortcomings.
Tufts has been working with an architecture firm to design the building and looking for inspiration from similar spaces in other universities.
"We don't have a timeline for construction," Bharucha said. "If we can identify all the necessary resources, we would like to begin construction within the next few years."
"We're a good year away, or maybe even two years away, from putting a shovel in the ground," Newell added.
Tufts has yet to obtain permission from the city of Medford to build the lab. "As the building gets planned, obviously it needs the cooperation of the city of Medford and the local residents before we move forward with the next stage of planning," Bharucha said. "We want to have good relations with our host community."
The planning for the lab began several years ago, but the project could not move forward without financial backing. "We believe we [now] have a financial plan in place to move forward," Bharucha said. The funding for the lab will come from a donor to Beyond Boundaries, Tufts' capital campaign. The donor's name has not yet been released.
The building is set to be built on or close to Boston Avenue, near the psychology building. "We are hoping that we will be able to build the new building in that area, somewhere on that block, assuming that we get the approvals from the city," Bharucha said.
There are several buildings in the area that are not currently being used by Tufts, and one of these could become the site of the integrated lab, Bharucha added. The idea is that the lab will be an extension of the Tufts-dominated area, fitting in with the other science and engineering buildings on that part of campus.
"The proposed location is actually not that far [from campus]," Newell said. She noted that the Science and Technology Center is a block farther down.
According to Fuhrman, between 90 and 110 students graduate with degrees in biology each year. This number does not include biochemistry and biopsychology majors.
"Biology is one of the largest majors at Tufts, and it's essential that we provide an adequate facility for biology," Bharucha said. "Biomedical engineering is a field that's growing rapidly at the national level, and we are very strong at that at Tufts," he added.
Other than the integrated lab, there are no major construction projects planned for Tufts' Medford campus. The Boston and Grafton campuses are both building new campus centers, and the School of Dental Medicine on the Boston campus is undergoing a five-story expansion.
