The University of Aberdeen’s Cruickshank Building is to be officially reopened today [11.45am Wednesday 18 March] following a £1 million refurbishment.
A centralised facility has been created to accommodate the Department of Plant and Soil Science, housing state of the art analytical equipment, a radiation laboratory and microbiology laboratory for research with genetically modified micro-organisms.
Facilities in the refurbished building will also be used by the new Aberdeen University Centre for Organic Agriculture (AUCOA) established last month with £5 million funding from TESCO supermarket, MAFF and others, with aim of boosting organic production in Britain.
Ken Killham, Head of the Department of Plant and Soil Science said:
“The refurbished building, as well as the research support and funding from NERC, enables the Department of Plant and Soil Science to continue to improve the quality of the environment in the North East of Scotland through monitoring and modelling river water quality and further develop biosensor technology to protect river from toxic pollutants. The work of the department has global significance too with active, integrated research taking place around the world from as varied locations as the arctic tundra to the tropical rain forests.”
Professor John Krebs, Chief Executive of the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) has been invited to unveil a plaque to mark the occasion. NERC is the single biggest single sponsor of research in the department, providing research grants into the following areas: Arctic and Montane Ecology; Acid rain, catchment and streamwater chemistry; Biosensors and Bioremediation of contaminated land; and Tropical Ecology.
The Department of Plant and Soil Science formed in 1988 is the only one of its kind in Britain. It has 17 full time members of academic staff with research interest spanning from tropical ecology to soil microbiology.