University of Utah College of Science

The College of Science at the University of Utah is an academic college of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. The college offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy.

College of Science at the University of Utah
The College of Science is located on the North West section of the University of Utah campus, with buildings on the North and South sides of Presidents Circle.
TypePublic
Established1970
DeanHenry S. White
Academic staff
171
Undergraduates2,067
Postgraduates525
Location
Salt Lake City
,
Utah
,
USA
AffiliationsUniversity of Utah
Websitewww.science.utah.edu

History

Science has been a part for the University of Utah curriculum since the beginning of the schools's history in 1850 as the University of Deseret. Dr. Cyrus Collins was initially the only professor and taught mainly in the sciences.[1] During the second quarter, W.W. Phelps was hired as a second professor and the school was opened to women. New scientific instruments were acquired from local donors or sent for from the eastern United States. The third professor hired at the University was Orson Pratt, who taught astronomy, mathematics, and algebra.[1] The University then closed during a period of scarcity due to crop failures and drought, and reopened in 1867. A science curriculum culminating in a B.S degree was offered in 1870, becoming a 4-year degree in 1884-85.[2]  This curriculum focused on mathematics, natural, and physical sciences, as well as classes in history, political economy, theology and moral philosophy.  

In 1878, Joseph T. Kingsbury joined the chemistry faculty and became chair of chemistry and physics.[3] By this period a regular series of public science lectures were offered and there was a chemical laboratory located in the basement of the University Hall building. By the 1890s, 400 students were enrolled and the University offered BA and BS degrees in classical, scientific, and normal programs.[4] The University of Deseret was renamed as the University of Utah in 1892 and degree programs in the traditional academic departments of letters, arts, and sciences were organized under the University College.[3] In 1957, the University College became the College of Letters and Science under dean and philosophy professor Sterling M. McMurrin.[5] In 1970 under Dean Milton Voight, the College of Letters and Science was divided into three separate colleges: the College of Humanities, the College of Science, and the College of Social and Behavioral Science.[6]

In 1989 following the apparent discovery of cold fusion by Department of Chemistry chair Stanley Pons and British colleague Martin Fleischmann, the University of Utah immediately began plans to construct the National Cold Fusion Institute in Research Park and appointed College of Science Dean Hugo Rossi as director.[7] Amid increasing concerns about the lack of conclusive results, Rossi resigned in November and returned to his post as dean of the College.[8] In 1990 a group of ten scientists from the Department of Physics were unable to verify the existence of cold fusion and reported their negative results in Nature.[9] Soon after the paper appeared they were contacted by a lawyer representing Fleischmann and Pons demanding a retraction. In response, a group of 22 professors representing all departments in the College of Science requested that the University complete a full review of the science and finances of the National Cold Fusion Institute. The chair of the Department of Physics Craig Taylor stated in an interview that "[we] felt that the College of Science had to make a stand, that our scientific reputations were on the line and academic freedom was being maligned."[10] Interest in cold fusion research quickly declined when further work brought no conclusive results, and the National Cold Fusion Institute closed its doors on June 30, 1991 because state funds had run out and investments from private sources were insufficient for the continuation of operations.[11]

The College of Science presently houses the Department of Biology, Department of Chemistry, Department of Mathematics, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.[12][13]

Buildings

LeRoy Cowles Building
LeRoy Cowles Building in 1905

The LeRoy Cowles Building was designed by Richard Kletting and completed in 1901. As one of the first three buildings on campus it first served as the University of Utah library. Since 1951 it has housed the Department of Mathematics. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and officially named for LeRoy Cowles in 1980.[14]

LeRoy Cowles Building in 2016

The building was significantly renovated in 2002 to add the T. Benny Rushing Mathematics Student Center and a plaza connecting the Cowles Building to the Widtsoe Building.[15] The renovation also added new artwork by Anna Campbell Bliss on the lobby walls on all three floors of the building.[16] The series, "Numbers & Measure", consists of eighteen screenprinted and etched plates that explore structural connections between science, art, and culture.[17] An exposed-beam loft was added in the attic in 2004 to serve as additional graduate student offices and study space.[18]

John Widtsoe Building
John Widtsoe Building on the University of Utah campus

This building was designed by Richard Kletting and completed in 1901. That same year, the building was nearly destroyed by fire. Only the foundation and walls were left standing. Fortunately, these were in good condition and the building contents had been restored or replaced by the time the University opened in 1902. Uses of the building have been primarily for the sciences, with chemistry, physics and mathematics taught there through several generations. In 1976 the building was named the John A. Widtsoe Building, after the former president of the University of Utah who served from 1916–1921.

James Talmage Building
James Talmage Building on the University of Utah Campus

Built in 1901 and designed by Richard Kletting, this building originally served as the campus museum of natural history, and was later changed to the Biology building in 1959. In 1976 the name of the building was changed from North Biology Building to James E. Talmage building, named after former president James E. Talmage, who served from 1894–1897. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

George Thomas Building / Crocker Science Center
The reading room in Thomas Library circa 1950

Designed by Ashton and Evans, this building was completed in 1935 and named after former university president George Thomas, who served from 1921–1941. When first built it served as the University of Utah library, but later became the home of the Utah Museum of Natural History in 1968. In 2011 the Utah Museum of Natural History moved to a completely new building (in Rio Tinto, Salt Lake City) and changed its name to Natural History Museum of Utah. After that, in 2016, ground was broken in the George Thomas Building[19] for the Gary & Ann Crocker Science Center, which consists of an interior renovation and an addition to the building.

Departments

The College of Science is made up of four departments: Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy. There are also a number of interdisciplinary programs administered by the College. The Center for Science and Mathematics Education offers K-12 STEM education programs, a masters degree in science for secondary school teachers, and administers the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair which serves as the regional qualifier for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.[20]

As of 2016, The College of Science consists of 171 full-time faculty members distinguished for excellence in research and education, teaching more than 300 courses per semester, and approximately 2,067 undergraduate and 525 graduate students pursuing bachelor, master and doctoral degrees in the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy.

Biology

The School of Biological Sciences offers undergraduate degrees and three overlapping graduate training programs: Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology (MCEB), Ecology Evolution and Organismal Biology (EEOB), and Microbial Biology. The department also offers minor programs in secondary school teaching certification and integrative human biology (jointly with the Department of Anthropology). Faculty research interests span a wide variety of phenomena and disciplines and the Department has major research funding that supports initiatives in:

[21]

Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry offers Bachelors of Arts, Bachelors of Science, and PhDs. There are nine emphases offered for undergraduates: professional (traditional chemistry major), biology, business, chemical engineering, geology, materials science and engineering, mathematics, physical chemistry, and teaching.[22] The Department has major research funding that supports initiatives in:

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Biological Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Materials Science
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Physical Chemistry

The Department has facilities for NMR, mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, and optical spectroscopy. Additionally, the affiliated USTAR Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry core provides synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and library screening services to investigators at the University of Utah and to industry partners.[23] The Department also houses the University of Utah Scientific Glassblowing shop to provide repairs, modification, and custom designs for borosilicate glass or quartz apparatus.[24] It is also one of only eight universities worldwide to offer training and courses in scientific glassblowing for students.[25][26]

Since 1980, the Department has also hosted the annual free public Faraday Chemistry Christmas Lecture. University chemistry professors Ronald Ragsdale and Jerry Driscoll started the yearly tradition to recreate Michael Faraday's Christmas lecture series for children at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1827.[27] The lecture series demonstrates chemistry experiments designed to inspire and entertain audiences. Tickets become available in October and are often sold out before December.[28] After 24 years, Ragsdale and Driscoll retired in 2005 and the annual lecture has continued with a new faculty duo chosen each year.[28]

Mathematics

The Department of Mathematics ranks 16th among public educational institutions in the United States, and has graduated two Churchill Scholarship recipients in recent years.[29][30] It offers undergraduate majors with emphases in statistics, computation, applied mathematics, and teaching. The Department also offers masters programs in statistics, pure mathematics, applied mathematics, and PhDs. Main faculty research areas are:

Physics & Astronomy

The Department of Physics & Astronomy offers bachelors, masters, and PhD programs in physics and astronomy. The Department supports research in the following areas:

The Department administers the Telescope Array Project, which comprises over 507 particle detectors in Millard County, Utah designed to observe air showers induced by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays using a combination of ground array and air-fluorescence techniques.[31] The Project is the direct successor of the HiRes cosmic ray detector that operated in the western Utah desert by the Dugway Proving Ground from 1997 to 2006. The HiRes detector made the first observation of the Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuzmin limit, which indicates the highest energy cosmic rays that interact with the Cosmic Microwave Background and the universe becoming opaque to their propagation.[32] The HiRes detector also recorded the "Oh-My-God particle", an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray recorded as possessing 320 exa-electron volts (EeV) of energy.[33]

The Department also possesses the only observatory on campus with telescopes.[34] The Foundation also donated funds in 2009 to install another observatory, the Willard L. Eccles Observatory in the San Francisco Mountains in southern Utah.[35]

Notable alumni
Main article: List of University of Utah people

Biology

Chemistry
  • James F. Bonner (BA 1931) – plant biochemist noted for discovering an efficient process for collecting natural rubber from trees
  • Wilbert L. Gore (MS 1935) – co-inventor of Gore-Tex fabrics
  • Tracy Hall (BS 1942, MS 1943, PhD 1948) – invented synthetic diamonds
  • Kirk Ririe (BS 2005) – co-founder of BioFire Diagnostics, a medical device and diagnostics company formally known as Idaho Technology,[36] and member of the Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame
  • Thomas Ypsilantis (BS 1949) – co-discovered the antiproton

Mathematics

Physics and Astronomy

Notable faculty

College deans

Since the official formation of the College of Science in 1970, there have been nine deans.

College of Science Deans Tenure Bio
Pete D. Gardner1971–1974Served as area dean in science in the College of Letters and Science from 1968-1970 and served as academic vice president under President David P. Gardner from 1973-1977.[40]
Frank E. Harris1974–1975Contributed substantially to research in quantum chemistry and published nearly 250 academic papers.[41]
E. Allan Davis1975–1976While at the University, he served at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC and taught at Mildenhall Air Force Base[42]
David M. Grant1976–1985Pioneer in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), received the Utah Governor's Medal for Science, and the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence – the highest award offered to faculty at the University of Utah; in 2006 the University named the new NMR facility in honor of Grant.[43]
Joseph L. Taylor1985–1987Recipient of the Leroy P. Steele Prize and Invited Speaker at the 1974 International Congress of Mathematicians
Hugo Rossi1987–1993Took temporary leave in 1989 to serve as director of the National Cold Fusion Institute, during which William Gray served as dean[44]
T. Benny Rushing1993–1997Chair of the Department of Mathematics from 1982–1985 and again from 1991–1993, during which the department was named most improved in the nation by the Conference Board of Associated Research Councils.[45]
Peter Stang1997–2007Recipient of the National Medal of Science, the highest US honor for a scientist or engineer.[46]
Pierre Sokolsky2007–2013Led the High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Detector project that made the first observation of the GZK cutoff and the Oh-My-God particle, leading to the development of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray physics.
Henry S. White2013–presentPast president of the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Chemical Society.[47]
gollark: Ideatic ideon: replace USB with HTTP/TCP/IP over Ethernet lines.
gollark: ... yes, why do you think they use HTTPish paths and are handled by HTTPish servers?
gollark: Websockets use HTTP.
gollark: Yes, all is to communicate over HTTP.
gollark: ↑

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