Arthur
Vining Davis Foundations Grant to Purchase Scientific Equipment
For
Immediate Release:
March 1, 2002
RICHMOND,
Indiana —
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations have awarded Earlham College
$200,000 for the purchase of scientific equipment.
Specifically,
the grant will purchase a Beowulf Computational Cluster with associated
support hardware, a portable X-ray diffractometer, and an energy
dispersive X-ray spectrometer attachment for the College's scanning
electron microscope.
The equipment
will be of use to students and faculty in all six departments of
the Science Division - Biology, Chemistry, Geoscience, Physics,
Mathematics, and Computer Science.
The equipment
will serve both laboratory activities in regular courses, and also
provide a stronger foundation for student-faculty collaborative
research. The new acquisitions will allow the science departments
to strengthen student understanding of data collection and analysis.
"We do
not want our students to have merely a 'black box' understanding
of the equipment they use at Earlham or will use in their lives
and careers beyond college," Earlham President Doug Bennett
said. "These equipment purchases will strengthen our students'
understanding of how computers are becoming integral to data collection
and analysis."
The Arthur
Vining Davis Foundations, based in Jacksonville, Florida, are a
national philanthropic organization established through the generosity
of the late American industrialist Arthur Vining Davis, who was
for many years president and chairman of the board of the Aluminum
Company of America (Alcoa).
The purpose
of the Foundations is to provide financial assistance "within
the limits of their budgets and the discretion of their Trustees,
to certain educational, cultural, scientific and religious institutions."
The present practice of the Board of Trustees is to award these
annual grants-in-aid primarily in the areas of private higher education,
secondary education, graduate theological education, health care
(caring attitudes) and public television.
Contact:
Kirsten
Bohl, assistant to the president
765-983-1645
Release
Written by:
Richard
Holden, director of public information
765-983-1323
|
