A dedication ceremony was held today (Jan. 12) at West Virginia University for a new state-of-the art agricultural sciences complex on the University’s Evansdale Campus.
This beautiful new facility is a visible reminder that we are a growing Universitygrowing in size and in the stature of our teachers, researchers and students,said WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr.
The $9.5 million project has resulted in a two-story structure of approximately 38,000 square feet. The building, called South Agricultural Sciences, contains research and teaching laboratories, a small greenhouse, office space for professors, staff, graduate assistants, a state-of-the-art tiered lecture hall that seats 250, and unfinished shell space that will be used for future growth and expansion.
The ambitious project has allowed us to relocate faculty and staff in our plant pathology and environmental microbiology program from Brooks Hall on the Downtown Campus to the Evansdale Campus,said Cameron Hackney, dean of the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences.We have been able to bring our faculty closer together and to reinforce the collaboration and innovation that are so critical to our research efforts.
West Virginia State Treasurer John Perdue, an alumnus of the college, and master’s candidate Susan R. Seese spoke at the ceremony.
Seese, of Preston County , is one of the first graduate students to begin her studies in the new facility. She earned a bachelor’s of science degree in animal and veterinary sciences from WVU in December 2005, a minor in environmental microbiology, and is now pursuing a master’s degree in environmental microbiology.
Ms. Seese is an excellent representative of the Davis College as a whole, having completed her undergraduate studies in one program, becoming intrigued by a related field through pursuit of an academic minor, and then choosing to further her education in
another field,Hackney said.She also helps illustrate our hopes for this building, a new structure that promotes undergraduate education, graduate-level studies, and innovative, interdisciplinary research.
Plant pathology and environmental microbiology faculty conduct research in areas such as soil microbiology, plant disease, food microbiology and safety, and mycology, the study of fungi. The program offers advanced study for master’s and doctoral candidates, and an undergraduate minor in environmental microbiology.
The program is home to INVAM , the International Culture Collection of Arbuscular and Vesicular Mycorrhizal Fungi. The collection is the largest of its kind, and INVAM ’s staff acquires, propagates, characterizes and maintains germplasm of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in living cultures for preservation and distribution to any person or institution. Scholars from around the world use INVAM samples in their research and learn propagation techniques at the collection’s Morgantown facilities.
Construction of South Agricultural Sciences began in March 2005, with completion and move-in in mid-December.
Approximately eight faculty, six staff, two post-doctoral students and a dozen graduate students will have offices in the new building.