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The Clark Endowment on May 31, 2005 was valued at $204.2 million, as compared to last year’s level of $186.3 million. The great majority of these funds have been provided to the University over its 118-year history by generous alumni and other supporters who have chosen to benefit Clark and its students in perpetuity. These donors have asked that their original gifts be invested, and that the annual income thereon be used to support the intended programs, primarily scholarships, fellowships and faculty chairs. The University’s total invested funds have grown in recent years, due both to investment performance and charitable contributions from generous Clark alumni and friends.
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Kresge Grants Support Key Instruments for Chemistry and Physics
Clark received the first of two grants from the Kresge Foundation for the purchase and maintenance of instrumentation vital to chemistry and physics research. A Kresge Science Initiative equipment grant of $102,960 went toward the purchase of an X-ray diffractometer and a superconducting quantum interference device (squid) magnetometer for the Chemistry and Physics departments.
Specifically, these instruments are critical to the research of chemists Luis Smith and Mark Turnbull and physicist Chris Landee. The X-Ray diffractometer allows Smith to look at the composition of an entire compound rather tha n one slice of it, which is important to his work on creating mesospores—honeycomb-like structures. He is pursuing the idea that such honeycomb structures with chemical properties can be used for chemical reactions—a basis for nanotechnology. Identifying a process to replicate the honeycomb structure is key to the development of certain molecular technologies.
"If this instrument weren’t here, I wouldn’t be able to do my research," says Smith, noting that Clark had such an instrument 10 years ago. When it broke, however, there were no funds to fix or replace it. Since then, data requiring an X-ray diffractometer was collected at other universities and often mailed back to Clark.
Landee and Turnbull, who have a long research partnership, use both the squid magnetometer and X-ray diffractometer in their research to develop new magnetic materials. They use the X-ray to confirm the composition and identify materials, and then use the squid to characterize the cor relations between a material’s structure and its magnetic properties. Turnbull’s and Landee’s research has far reaching implications, as magnetic fields are used in many basic appliances, including computers.
Clark raised the initial funds required to apply for a Kresge grant—two thirds of the equipment costs—through grants from the National Science Foundation and PolyCarbon Industries, Inc. Additionally, a Kresge Science Initiative challenge grant of $102,960 will be awarded when Clark has raised an additional $400,000 to establish an endowment for the maintenance and replacement costs for the two sophisticated and highly calibrated instruments. The challenge deadline is May 1, 2006. Turnbull and Smith note that with an endowment to ensure that the instruments will be working and available for many years to come, they will be able to incorporate the instruments into the department’s materials-science curriculum.
"The research applications are as much about t eaching as they are about research," says Turnbull. "By teaching students to use these instruments, students will have the opportunity to apply what they’re learning and to discover new things."
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President's Report 2005
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