New science lab to be vibration free

By Gus Bode

The need for a vibration absorbing environment for the Center for Electron Microscopy prompted a $1.4 million state-funded move from the basement of Neckers Hall to a new annex yet to be named.

The new annex will be located between Life Sciences III and the Agriculture Building and is tentatively scheduled to be completed by September or October 1998.

Construction began at the beginning of December.

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John Bozzola, director of the Center for Electron Microscopy, said that the Center’s current location was not suitable for the kind of work they do.

[The basement of Neckers] was never made for a lab of this sort, Bozzola said.

The new annex will be a one-floor building to assure all equipment is on an anti-vibration floor.

The Center views a variety of specimens, such as plant tissue, for research purposes. Researches also work on things as extreme as car and airplane brakes on how they operate in the presence of heat and friction.

When the new facility opens, the Center will have the capabilities of X-Ray analysis through transmissions and scanning electron microscopes, which are considered new technologies for this campus, Bozzola said.

Because of the equipment used, the microscopy lab needs a vibration absorbing environment. The equipment needs to be placed on concrete slabs to assure no vibration.

The Center was originally in the Materials Technology Center on campus. It moved to the basement of Neckers in the late 70s and has been there since.

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The Center was supposed to be moved to Life Sciences III before talks of building a new annex began, but that building was never accommodating to anti-vibration capabilities, Bozzola said.

Bozzola said that although the microscopy lab is primarily used by graduate students, the new annex will be available to researchers, professors and any student who needs access to high-magnification equipment.

Allen Haake, supervising architect and engineer at the SIUC Physical Plant and a member of the Capital Development Board that oversees the construction, said that the construction is about one month behind schedule, mostly because of bad weather.

All they’ve done so far was take out a couple of trees, Haake said. They should have dug the footings and poured the concrete by now. They should have been starting the masonry work, but with the rain and the cold, it really put things back.

Morgan Builders of Murphysboro is the general contractor for the project. Litton Enterprises from Marion is doing the plumbing and the heating. J & J Sheet Metal from Jonesboro is doing the ventilation for the new annex. Davictor Enterprises is the electrical contractor out of Harrisburg, and Stine-Eggemeyer Associates are the architects.

Bozzola said that he submitted about 25 different choices for the name of the new annex to Vice Chancellor for Administration James Tweedy’s office, and he has yet to hear from them about the official name. The Center for Advanced Imaging and the Center for Electron Microscopy were among the submissions.

Tweedy said that the building will not be named until the construction is complete.

The Board of Trustees are the people who name the buildings, Tweedy said, and that doesn’t happen until the building is done.

Bozzola said that the move will make students more aware of the Center’s presence on campus.

We’re going to be in a much more visible location, Bozzola said. A lot of people didn’t even know we were here.

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