Daily Lobo new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
wednesday March 4, 2015 | Vo l u m e 1 1 9 | I s s u e 1 1 5
New physics building awaits funding Senate bill would help fund the project to update lab facilities By Marielle Dent If the capital outlay bill circulating the legislature is approved, UNM will receive $500,000 to complete design and planning of the Interdisciplinary Science Education Building that has been in the works for years. The new building is a necessity if the physics and astronomy department is going to continue competing effectively and creating viable research, said Wolfgang Rudolph, chair of the department.
It would replace the current physics and astronomy building on Lomas Boulevard, as well as Regener Hall. Rudolph said these buildings are technologically outdated and consistently have maintenance problems, which is creating issues for the department. “We don’t have the space we need. We don’t have the quality of research labs that we need to do state-of-the-art research,” Rudolph said. “Some faculty members we tried to attract declined our offer
because they could not set up their experiments in our labs. And labs are quite important to a department like ours. We are not doing research for the sake of research, we are doing research to train students.” The new building would be outfitted with ultramodern lab facilities and would be available to all researchers on campus, not only those studying physics and astronomy. However, even if financing goes well, the proposed timeline does not
predict it will be ready until the end of 2018, Rudolph said. Funding for everything but the construction would be provided by the capital outlay bill, or Senate Bill 159, said Travis McIntyre, a graduate student who works for the Office of Government and Community Relations. The bill would complete the process of paying for architects and land surveys to see where it should be built. One possible location for the
Interdisciplinary Building is an old water reservoir near the Biology Department and Central Avenue. UNM does not own the property but is trying to acquire it, Rudolph said. Another possibility is the C parking lot next to Scholes Hall. Next, funds for the construction would have to be raised. The total estimate is $77 million, Rudolph said. Rudolph and McIntyre were unable to comment on where those funds would come from at this time.
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Diana Cervantes / Daily Lobo / @DailyLobo
A maintenance worker fixes mastic lab seams on a parapet at the Physics and Astronomy rooftop on Tuesday afternoon. If state Senate Bill 159 passes, the old Physics and Astronomy building on Lomas Boulevard could be replaced with a new, state-of-the-art Interdisciplinary Science Building.
Measles comeback looms Pediatrician urges parents to vaccinate their kids
By Matthew Reisen
Matthew Reisen / Daily Lobo / @DailyLobo
Dr. Randall Knott, assistant pediatrics professor at UNM, is urging parents to get their children vaccinated for measles, in light of a growing number of infections in the United States. Knott said there is overwhelming evidence that the vaccine does not cause autism.`
Measles is making a comeback nationwide, and one UNM Hospital pediatrician is urging parents to vaccinate their children. Dr. Randall Knott, assistant pediatrics professor at UNM, said there is yet to be a reported case of measles in New Mexico, but the national average is currently at 170 cases, approaching a record high in recent decades. This is concerning, he said, considering that just four years ago the United States was at a record low.
“It’s a disease that’s existed for thousands of years, and we had accomplished fantastic results from all the success we’ve had with vaccinating children,” he said. “That just goes to show how really fantastic the vaccine is.” But it’s not quite as simple as that, he said. “It’s emerged as a growing concern because of choices that parents have arrived at, in terms of choosing not to vaccinate their children,” he said. Many reasons parents choose to not vaccinate their children stem from misinformation presented on
the internet and other media, rather than general ignorance on their part, he said. “We know that it’s usually the very educated parents (who choose not to vaccinate). You would think that would not be the case,” Knott said. “There’s a lot of information out there that they investigate and they tease out that they pay attention to, which unfortunately is not the kind of research and investigation that we feel is the accurate information.” Much of the concern stems from the belief that the MMR vaccine
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