The John Stauffer Charitable Trust has awarded a $300,000 matching grant to The Joint Science Program at Claremont McKenna, Scripps, and Pitzer colleges to fund development of a new chemistry laboratory as part of a two-year $2.6 million expansion project.
Upon completion of the dollar-for-dollar challenge, the new John Stauffer Molecular Modeling Laboratory will provide students with state-of-the-art computerized mathematical molecular modeling and simulation capabilities in response to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries' increasing reliance on the new technology. The Laboratory will house six advanced SGI Octane computing workstations, a Silicon Graphics server, and a processor. Computer-based modeling will be utilized in the future by all of the 3-colleges' Joint Science Program interdisciplinary faculty of chemists, biologists, and physicists.
"We are very pleased to receive this Stauffer Challenge," commented Pamela B. Gann, president of Claremont McKenna College. "It will help us leverage the support of other corporations, foundations, and individuals as we strive to keep the Joint Science Program at the cutting edge of science education."
The Joint Science Program's 25-year relationship with the John Stauffer Charitable Trust has produced funding for several physical science capital and equipment projects within the W.M. Keck Science Center, home of the Joint Science Program, completed in 1992.
Claremont McKenna College and Scripps College established the Joint Science Program in 1955 in order to enrich the science curriculum and capture economies of scale rather than forming separate science centers. After its founding in 1963, Pitzer College became the third partner in the Joint Science Program. Joint Science faculty are members of all three college's communities and they are part of an interdisciplinary educational environment.
Claremont McKenna College, ranked in U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 15 liberal arts colleges in the country, educates leaders in business, the professions and public affairs. Scripps College is rated among the top 40 national liberal arts colleges and is one of a few colleges in the West dedicated to educating women for professional careers. Pitzer College is regarded as one of America's most inventive colleges in the nation. All three colleges are part of The Claremont Colleges, a consortium of seven world-renowned academic institutions.