Colby, Bigalow Laboratory announce partnership
By The Morning Sentinel Staff
7/23/10
WATERVILLE — Students and faculty at Colby College and researchers at Bigelow Laboratory, of West Boothbay Harbor, will all have greater access to education and research in marine sciences.
That’s the result a “strategic partnership” between the two institutions, according to a release announcing the deal today.
According to a release, the partnership involves an expansion of the marine sciences curriculum at Colby and an increase in undergraduate student research. Going forward, the partnership will enable “collaborative teaching opportunities that would take advantage of the resources at both institutions, semester-long in-residence study by Colby students at Bigelow, and curricular innovations that combine scientific research with economic and social policy analysis,” according to the release.
“We are very excited about the potential for this partnership,” Colby President William “Bro” Adams said in a statement. “For our students and faculty, it will provide access to ocean research at a level simply not possible before, and it is hard to overstate the academic possibilities that will present themselves in the coming years.”
Since education is a key piece of the laboratory’s mission, the partnership with Colby is “a pivotal moment in our evolution as a world-class ocean science and education institution,” said David Coit, chairman of the Bigelow board of trustees.
Graham Shimmield, executive director of the laboratory, said the partnership will help train the next generation of oceanographers. Shimmield said the laboratory’s new Ocean Science and Education Campus in East Boothbay will be used and “give us the opportunity to develop a range of education programs and initiatives with the college.”
The agreement between the two institutions “formalizes” a relationship that’s been in the works for a while, according to the release. This year, for example, Bigelow scientists offered courses at Colby in bioinformatics and in oceans and climate change as part of the Colby’s “Jan Plan,” an intensive four-week term in which students focus on a single course or project.
Under the partnership, the Bigelow involvement with Jan Plan will continue through 2013.
In addition, current and future research collaborations will be encouraged between Bigelow Laboratory and Colby. For example, Shimmield pointed to a recent three-year, $610,893 award from the National Science Foundation — for field research on water chemistry within microbial systems — to Bigelow’s Dr. David Emerson and his co-investigator, Colby professor Whitney King.