Media Advisory: University of Minnesota to showcase $16 million renovation at St. Anthony Falls Lab
Contacts:
Rhonda Zurn, College of Science and Engineering, rzurn@umn.edu, (612) 626-7959
Brooke Dillon, University News Service, bldillon@umn.edu, (612) 624-2801
Renovated lab will improve environmental and energy research
What: Special media tour of the renovated St. Anthony Falls Laboratory—This is your exclusive chance to see what goes on inside this high-profile building across the river from downtown Minneapolis. Tour stops include the wind tunnel used for wind energy research; various basins and flumes used to study hydro energy and algae-based biofuels; and the outdoor stream lab.
Who: Members of the media only. There will be no tours for the general public at this time. Media tour will be given by St. Anthony Falls Lab director Fotis Sotiropoulos and associate director Jeff Marr.
When: Tuesday, Sept. 16, 10:30 a.m. (Note: An invitation-only gala reopening and ribbon-cutting ceremony is Wednesday, Sept. 17)
Where: St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, 2 Third Avenue SE, Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (9/12/2014) – After almost four years of planning and renovation the University of Minnesota is ready to show off its newly renovated St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL), a one-of-a-kind facility for environmental and energy research on Hennepin Island.
The renovation was funded by a $7.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and funding from state funds that were part of the University of Minnesota’s allocation for Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) funds.
The renovation cost totaled nearly $16 million to revitalize the aging lab originally built in 1938 as a project of the federal government’s Works Progress Administration.
For more than 75 years, scientists from around the world have been drawn to SAFL to work on innovative solutions to the world’s environmental, water resources, and energy-related problems. After more than seven decades the lab was showing its fair share of wear and tear, but the renovation brought the lab full circle, rehabilitating a deteriorated infrastructure into a state-of-the-art facility that enables critical new research on energy and environmental sustainability.
The renovation has enhanced existing facilities to improve the quality of research in wind-power efficiency and reliability; water-power energy devices and their environmental impact; biofuels focusing on bioreactors using algae; and environmental restoration and management, including streams, rivers and deltas. The renovation also allows researchers, practitioners, and a broad spectrum of learners to participate in SAFL through collaboration and virtual experiments.
“This is a historic moment for SAFL and the University of Minnesota,” said Fotis Sotiropoulos, SAFL’s director and a professor in the University’s College of Science and Engineering. “Since its inception, the laboratory has been a leader in science-based solutions to major environmental and energy related problems through research, education, and outreach. This renovation enables us to continue and expand our leadership role well into the 21st century.”
To see photos inside the lab, visit z.umn.edu/saflphotos14. For more information on the lab, visit www.safl.umn.edu.