The Cal State San Bernardino College of Natural Sciences is getting two new biology teaching labs and renovated graduate research facilities to provide much-needed research space for students and faculty.

“CSUSB has a critical lab space need in STEM and I am thrilled that CSU and CSUSB are investing and working on expanding the learning, research and advising spaces,” said Sastry G. Pantula, dean of the College of Natural Sciences. “This is an extraordinarily important investment in our student and faculty success, and one that will directly benefit teaching and learning experiences. For students, the hands-on experience acquired in a research lab strengthens their technical and critical-thinking skills that are vital to their future. For our faculty, the new labs bring the opportunity to strengthen their teaching and uncover new insights and scientific knowledge.”

Existing vacated museum space in the Chemical Sciences building will be converted into two new state-of-the-art anatomy/physiology teaching laboratories with a total of 48 seats and a shared specimen storage room.

This new space will double the capacity of the existing anatomy/physiology lab and will allow for additional course sections to be offered to meet student demand. The existing biology lab space and the specimen storage in the Biological Sciences building will be converted into research space for new biology faculty and to a geology graduate research lab to provide much-needed research space for students and faculty.

This project is the culmination of the partnership with CSUSB’s Academic Affairs, faculty, Administration & Finance, and the Chancellor’s Office, who championed the project to alleviate the bottleneck related to impacted anatomy lab sections and enhance the student research experience.

In recognition of the importance for the need of appropriate teaching lab and student research space, the CSU system has provided $2.7 million of funding for the $2.9 million project. The project is scheduled to be open for fall 2020.