2 New Laboratories Dedicated at CSUN

Cal State Northridge’s College of Science and Mathematics formally dedicated two new theoretical and experimental laboratories Tuesday.

The labs, made possible by a $250,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, will be used by students and faculty members in biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics.

The experimental laboratory, in the basement of the Science II building, will be called the Condensed Matter Laboratory.

It will contain a device used to measure the fundamental structure and behavior of the biological membrane, said Radha Ranganathan, associate professor of physics at CSUN.

The theoretical laboratory, relocated to the third floor of the Science I building in January after being housed in campus trailers, will be called the Computation Materials Theory Center.

The Keck grant was used to purchase five high-speed computer workstations for the lab. The machines are two to three times as fast as previous computers, and will allow students and professors to do new calculations in new areas of research, according to Nicholas Kioussis, director of the theory center.

CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson, who attended the dedication along with 30 faculty members and Maria Pelligrini, the Keck Foundation program director, said the new equipment will allow the university to attract research-oriented students from all over the world.

“You can’t be on the cutting edge of research without the most modern and most complicated equipment,” Wilson said, “and this is extraordinarily expensive equipment.”