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Visit the Center for Natural Sciences

• Department of Biology
• Department of Chemistry
• Department of Physics

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Good Chemistry

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Learning Environment

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Student-Faculty Team Presents Research at "Cosmic Dust" Conference in Germany

The Center for Natural Sciences offers 125,000 square feet of office, classroom, and laboratory space. Supporting biology, chemistry, and physics work, the facility helps promote a level of student-faculty interaction and collaborative research rarely found at the undergraduate level.

The building was designed with input from the science faculty. Their suggestions helped create a facility that sets the standard for science education, promotes cutting-edge scientific research, and is ready for future growth -- a major plus for a school that often receives substantial private and government research grants.

Physics students learn to use geophysical instruments before taking a research trip to Cyprus.

The Center for Natural Sciences also houses a greenhouse that supports various biology research projects and is filled with plants indigenous to upstate New York, as well as tropical species.

Professor Susan Swenson works with a student in the greenhouse.

All students work in labs equipped with instruments normally found only at large research institutions, while physics students enjoy an interactive classroom filled with technology-rich workstations that allow lecture, laboratory, and discussion activities to happen simultaneously.

Faculty-student collaboration is an Ithaca hallmark. Professors and their students often conduct field research together, even publishing papers jointly. For example, students have conducted field work on water balance in trees in the dry forest of Brazil and an ecotoxicological data survey in the Arctic.