This article was previously printed in the Fall 2021 issue of .
For Dr. Rebecca Barlag, BS 鈥98, the OHIO experience has meant the narrow halls and dimly lit basement rooms of Clippinger Laboratories. First as a student and now as a professor of instruction, she鈥檚 begun almost every school year in Clippinger 194. But spring semester brought a new tradition鈥攊n a new home.
In late 2020, the University wrapped up construction on a 34,000-square-foot Chemistry Building, converting a parking lot near Clippinger and Emeriti Park into a center for groundbreaking learning and research for future generations of scientists and scholars. Standing three stories tall, the building鈥檚 first floor features undergraduate instructional labs for organic and analytical chemistry surrounded by student collaboration space. Its upper two floors house open-concept research labs鈥攕ynthetic labs on the second floor and instrumentation-based labs on the third鈥攁s well as faculty and graduate student offices.
This new epicenter for cutting-edge research will give students hands-on experience with the latest technologies, says Dr. Stephen Bergmeier, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
鈥淎 lot of new techniques have come out since Clippinger was built and dedicated in 1965,鈥 he says, also noting the more advanced research projects faculty and students have taken on over the years. 鈥淭he instruments tend to be more specific, so you need more of them.鈥
At the same time, enrollment in OHIO鈥檚 chemistry programs has exploded. Barlag, director of the Forensic Chemistry program, recalls having 35 students in her lab during her first year teaching in 2004. In 2020, she had almost 100 students.
鈥淭he labs were too crowded in Clippinger,鈥 she says. 鈥淲e desperately needed this space to accommodate and better serve our students.鈥
The building was designed with this growth in mind鈥攁nd with the goal of investing in innovative research and bringing it to the forefront of campus. The wall of windows on the building鈥檚 north side drenches labs and offices in sunlight while putting science on display. And various configurations of open, communal spaces allow for interaction, collaboration and study.
鈥淭he non-cramped nature of the building allows students that space to do their studying outside the lab, and that鈥檚 something I just love to see because it was impossible in Clippinger,鈥 Bergmeier says.
One new space in particular had Adam Hering, BS, BA 鈥22, eagerly anticipating his senior-year research activities. Greeting visitors as they enter the building鈥檚 lobby, the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) lab鈥檚 floor-to-ceiling windows bring chemical instrumentation, teaching and research out into the open.
鈥淭he lab is busy all the time,鈥 says Hering, who spends about 10 hours a week in the NMR lab researching how smaller molecules interact with larger ones. 鈥淵ou get to see people working in there and see the instruments actually being used.鈥
Among the instrumentation housed in the NMR lab is a mass spectrometer funded by a 2020 National Science Foundation grant awarded to a group of researchers led by Bergmeier. Faculty will use the mass spectrometer to identify and characterize molecules, but that instrument and others throughout the building will also support research across the University.
鈥淭hat would鈥檝e been incredible鈥 to see on a campus tour, Hering says of the NMR lab. 鈥淟et鈥檚 just say that I was born four years later, starting my freshman year right now. I would absolutely love what I鈥檓 looking at.鈥
Faculty and select students got their first taste of OHIO鈥檚 newest research facility earlier this year. Graduate students spent winter break 2020 packing up instrumentation and transferring it from Clippinger to the new building, allowing a limited number of in-person labs during spring semester in line with COVID-19 restrictions.
For all the excitement, the transition is a little bittersweet for those who, like Barlag, spent untold hours in Clippinger.
鈥淚 enjoyed teaching in the room where I learned,鈥 says Barlag. 鈥淚t鈥檚 funny to say to students, 鈥榃hen I was your age, I dropped my beaker at this very lab bench and had to redo the whole experiment.鈥欌
But Clippinger, which now connects to the Chemistry Building via a covered walkway, isn鈥檛 going anywhere. Renovation of the building鈥檚 east wing began this spring, kicking off the next phase of the Clippinger Renovation Project, which started with constructing the new Chemistry Building.
When a more modern Clippinger fully reopens in spring 2024, it will continue to house the physics, astronomy, geography and geological sciences departments, and certain chemistry classes could benefit from the updated space as well. Barlag envisions her old Clippinger basement stomping grounds as the perfect spot for her crime scene mockups, which she previously had to repeatedly set up and dismantle in her laboratory classroom.
In the meantime, students and faculty are beginning to make new memories and advancing science in the new building. Already, it feels like an integral part of the Athens Campus, Barlag says.
鈥淚t looks like Clippinger,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t looks like it belongs.鈥