11-12-04
Pennsylvania Sea Grant Leads Development
of Regional Science Consortium
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Pennsylvania Sea Grant, headquartered at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, has taken the lead in developing a Regional Science Consortium that will coordinate research in the Lake Erie and upper Ohio River Basin. The consortium currently includes thirteen area colleges and universities, a number of federal and state agencies, and private organizations. Based on its previous success, Pennsylvania Sea Grant was recently designated a Coherent Area Program by the National Sea Grant Office. "With this designation came a responsibility to get more involved in research. Taking the lead in the development of the Regional Science Consortium simply made sense at this time in our development," said Dr. Robert Light, director of Pennsylvania Sea Grant and senior associate dean at Penn State Behrend. |
The Regional Science Consortium will be located in the 65,000-square-foot Tom Ridge Center at Presque Isle, a research and education center now under construction at the entrance to Presque Isle State Park in Erie. The center includes a 6,000-square-foot research area complete with an aquatics lab; a botany lab; a microscopy teaching lab with audiovisual equipment; a cultures lab; a general chemical wet lab; and a prep lab for preparing samples. In addition the center will house two archival rooms, one for plants and one for non-plant specimens. The consortium will also have an additional 1,000-square-foot wet lab at the Presque Isle Marina.
Tom Ridge Center at Presque Isle
When the task force that planned the Tom Ridge Center asked Pennsylvania Sea Grant to oversee the development of its research facilities, Light brought representatives of regional colleges and universities together to consider a variety of collaborative models. They settled on a consortium, which they believe will leverage more funding and more student and faculty involvement, and Light was selected to be the group's first president.
Over the past year the Regional Science Consortium achieved non-profit status. Using fees paid by the members, the group hired a part-time executive director and began investigating the availability of grant funding. The consortium also has been awarded two $100,000 research equipment grants from Pennsylvania's Coastal Zone Management Program and is preparing proposals to the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and other agencies.
The Regional Science Consortium plans to focus on two goals, research and education. Lake and watershed research is expected to become more expansive and collaborative as scientists begin to use the consortium labs to process samples and conduct experiments related to the Lake Erie and upper Ohio River basins. Members of the consortium are in the process of developing an academic curriculum of credited courses with related field experiences for K-12, undergraduate and graduate students, and courses of general public interest.
"The consortium is open to looking at all aspects of education," said Eric Obert, extension director of Pennsylvania Sea Grant, who serves as vice president of the consortium. Jane Fulton, dean of the college of health, environment, and science at Slippery Rock University serves as secretary, and Gannon University professor Rick Diz is treasurer.
Once the Tom Ridge Center is completed in the summer of 2005, it will include the Regional Science Consortium labs, Pennsylvania Sea Grant offices, and offices for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Department of Environmental Protection's Office of the Great Lakes and Coastal Zone Management, Presque Isle Partnership, Lake Erie-Allegheny Earth Force, and other environmental organizations.
"The Regional Science Consortium will provide a centralized resource for researchers," said Obert. "The location of the consortium also will make it easier to share the results of research and educate those most involved in preserving the biodiversity of Lake Erie and the Ohio River Basin Watersheds."
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Contact: Loretta Brandon, 814-898-6063, lzb6@psu.edu