The newest addition to Reno's North Hills skyline, DRI's expansion of the Northern Nevada Science Center, provides a high technology home for state-of-the art science.

Carbon Laboratory Environmental Laboratory Technician Mark Morrison foreground, and Assistant Air Quality Scientist Dale Crow conduct analysis of organic and elemental carbon collected in air pollution samples. The data help determine the relative contributions of different types of pollutant sources in a region.

Certainly great science can't happen without the expertise of individual researchers. But these same researchers also require a conducive place to work and interact, particularly given DRI¹s emphasis on interdisciplinary science. Laboratory facilities, such as the new building's vertical science tower, enable DRI to explore questions that couldn't be addressed in the leased facility in Stead that had been the home of DRI's atmospheric and air quality scientists for the past 32 years.

With 60,000 square feet of office, laboratory, meeting, and library space, DRI's latest addition provides a home for all the faculty and staff of the new Division of Atmospheric Sciences (formed by a merger of the Atmospheric Sciences Center and the Energy and Environmental Engineering Center). These researchers, technicians, and support personnel, plus faculty from the Institute¹s other divisions, now occupy a three-story laboratory and officce building that is complemented by a two-story wing for library and meeting space.

Examples of the unique capabilities of this new facility include:

• Analysis of atmospheric gases and particulate materials that contribute to air pollution. The Organic Analysis Laboratory and the Environmental Analysis Facility, which actually comprise 10 laboratories, conduct air quality research for local, regional, national, and international sponsors. Current research includes investigations of air quality problems in Las Vegas, Mexico City, and Cairo.

• Investigation of visual aspects of air qualityquantifying the role of small particles in the reduction of visibility. The new Optics Laboratory, where this research takes place, is equipped with three separate experimental setups, each of which is isolated from the other so that stray light from one experiment does not inžuence adjoining work. Two new instruments for the precise detection of particulate absorption and extinction are now being tested for their ability to examine trace particulate levels in the national parks and other pristine environments. Investigation of what happens to rain and snow falling through a polluted atmosphere. The science tower, a unique vertical laboratory, provides for the construction of soil, water, and controlled-atmosphere columns. Multiple work platforms permit detection of change throughout the entire tower height of 70 feet.

• Development of an integrated solar, wind energy, and hydrogen-fuel-cell-power system for use in remote locations. A prototype system includes two wind generators and two solar panels installed next to the Northern Nevada Science Center expansion and connected to a hydrogen fuel cell inside the building.

• Ice-core analysis related to determining patterns in global climate change over time. This work is made possible by a -30 degree centigrade cold laboratory that provides space for working with materials that must remain frozen before analysis.

Archaeobotany Laboratory Dr. David Rhode uses a microscope to identify varieties of plant remains found in ancient pack rat nests, or middens. The plant parts reveal the mix of vegetation in existence at various times and provide information about changes in climate and other environmental conditions.

The infrastructure in the new building includes a fully equipped machine shop as well as an electronics laboratory, ensuring that all of the scientific projects have access to a comprehensive prototyping and fabrication facility. Main žoor laboratories have direct access to a service courtyard, allowing samples and materials to be off-loaded directly into each laboratory, saving valuable time and labor.

The new library provides space for DRI¹s research collection. The creation of the "virtual" library of the future is made possible through an advanced computer networking infrastructure. The meeting facilities include sophisticated videoconferencing capabilities designed to enable DRI to assume an expanded role in Nevada's distance education programs.

The new building is also highly energy efficient, including a thermal storage system allowing for cooling needs and low-temperature chilled water distribution. An energy recovery system is included for the laboratory ventilation system, and indoor air quality was carefully considered in the ventilation system design. In addition to the building's class 100 clean room, selected laboratories also beneŽt from highly filtered air.

Whether researchers are engaged in discussions about air quality in Las Vegas, conducting experiments on the formation of ice crystals in the science tower, or contributing to the education of Nevada's students through videoconferencing, DRI's latest building addition is the kind of facility that enables great science to flourish.

Next Story