Power SJSU: Breaking New Ground
Michael Kaufman, the dean of the College of Science, shares how the new building will integrate teaching, research and collaboration. Photo by Josie Lepe
The scientific enterprise is one of the greatest ongoing human achievements. As dean of the College of Science, I am deeply committed to providing meaningful research opportunities to all students.
Research informs our teaching and ensures that our graduates are ready to use the latest knowledge and techniques within their fields. At the 15th Annual College of Science Student Research Day this spring, more than 250 students displayed recent work on 110 projects that span the pure and applied areas we study in the college, from neurophysiology and polymer chemistry to machine learning and internet security. With students working side by side with faculty members, the research we are doing prepares students for careers in industry research labs, K-12 classrooms or advanced degree programs.
SJSU’s April 25 groundbreaking for our Interdisciplinary Science Building (ISB) was the first step toward the creation of a new Science Park, which will provide a home for more breakthrough discovery and applied research. Most importantly, it will connect science to all other disciplines. We will cross traditional academic lines and fuse creative fields of study to explore climate change, fire weather and ocean acidification, quantum computing, genetic engineering and emerging disciplines. We will create an environment where aspiring scientists and entrepreneurs can hit the ground running through student, faculty and industry partnerships. An “innovation wing,” called Silicon Valley Edge Laboratories, will be constructed during the second phase of the project.
Our goal is to make teaching, research and collaboration inseparable. Imagine the many more experiences we will provide to students when the ISB is complete in 2021!
—Michael Kaufman
Dean, College of Science
