Description of Request

Submitted By: Anja Kunze, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

I am the Principal Investigator of the Kunze Lab (TT Faculty). My lab currently houses a 690 square foot lab space in Chemistry Biochemistry Building (CBB) 324 classified as Biosafety Level 2. As of summer 2019 my lab comprises 4 graduate students, 2 REU students, 2 INBRE students who are sharing desks in a 180 square foot office space. My lab is funded through an NSF CAREER and a TEER grant. My office, however, is located more than a 5 minute walk away from my lab space in Cobleigh 509, which makes it very difficult to supervise these eight students effectively, providing training, supervising experiments at the wet bench, and reacting in a timely manner (less than 5 minutes!) to safety concerns. The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department has already provided additional office space for my students. This space, however, is located in Cobleigh which is again 5 minute away from the place where we do the experiments and can therefore only be used for computational work (1 student). I am requesting an office space in CBB to be closely located to my research lab and research group. The office is required to meet with students to brainstorm on their research ideas and progress. Students need a room where they can freely talk to me and express their concerns regarding their personal development, and regarding group dynamics in the lab. The NACOE has invested in a renovation project in CBB 324 of about $130,000 including the installation of an externally vented biosafety cabinet to fulfill safety requirements necessary for our research.  

Resolution

Date: February 7th, 2020

Space Management Committee unanimously approved the allocation of CBB 313 to Anja Kunze. Due the shortage of faculty offices within CBB, the committee included an amendment to obtain an estimate for renovating CBB 347 from a graduate student space into two separate faculty offices.