Richard King Mellon Foundation gives $150,000 for Forest Hydrology Suite
June 24, 2005
University Park, Pa. -- Penn State's School of Forest Resources has received a $150,000 gift from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to help build the new School of Forest Resources Building on the University Park campus.
The Pittsburgh-based foundation's gift recognizes the work of Penn State Professor of Forest Hydrology William E. Sharpe and his efforts to improve water and forest resources in Pennsylvania. During his 32 years with the University, Sharpe's research and outreach activities have led to substantial improvements in residential water conservation and heightened awareness of the environmental impacts of acid rain.
The new building's forest hydrology suite, consisting of three state-of-the-art laboratories -- the Water Resources Snow/Ice Lab, the Water Resources Atomic Absorption Hydrology Lab and the Water Resources Isotope Hydrology Lab -- will provide offices, laboratories and graduate student workspaces for Sharpe and his colleagues. These facilities will give the team an expanded opportunity for evaluating the impacts of acid rain on wildland watersheds and resolving some of Pennsylvania's most pressing environmental problems relative to surface and groundwater supplies.
The School of Forest Resources, in the College of Agricultural Sciences, is Pennsylvania's only professional education and research entity dedicated to the management of forest resources and their use. The new building is expected to be completed by fall 2006. Its total cost is estimated at $27.5 million, $6 million of which will come from private support. The building will allow the school to bring all of its professional programs-forest science, wildlife and fisheries science, and wood products-together under one roof for the first time in its century-long history.
Including the latest gift, the Richard King Mellon Foundation has given more than $10 million to Penn State to support the libraries, business, engineering and natural resource management.
See: Project
Plan
Additional
information on the new School of Forest Resources Building
Contact:
Laura Stocker
lsp1@psu.edu
814-863-4512
Michael Bezilla
mxb13@psu.edu
814-863-4512