Griffith University is enhancing its teaching and research capability with the launch of a new innovative facility that underlines the university’s strong foundation in science and technology.
The new Environmental Laboratories Building (N81), located on the Brisbane South campus, is a multifunctional space that will support Griffith Sciences activities across all three schools – Environment and Science, Engineering and Built Environment, and Information and Communications Technology.
It will provide spaces for research, teaching, mechanical and electrical workshops, and field and sample storage.
Griffith Sciences Dean Academic Professor Rosalind Archer said the opening of N81 in Griffith’s 50th year echoes the university’s commitment to environmental studies since it opened its doors with one of Australia’s first environmental science degrees in 1975.
“Fifty years ago, the Australian School of Environmental Studies school was one of the four foundational schools of the brand-new institution at the time, Griffith University, and offered the first bespoke environmental science program – the Bachelor of Australian Environmental Studies,” Professor Archer said.
“Fast-tracking to today, Griffith has come a long way in many ways, but this incredible new building that will house a range of innovative research and teaching spaces will elevate Griffith’s esteemed history of environment research to even greater levels.”
N81 was officially opened by Queensland Minister for the Environment and Tourism and Minister for Science and Innovation The Honourable Andrew Powell MP and Griffith Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Carolyn Evans, with Queensland Chief Scientist Professor Kerrie Wilson in attendance alongside Griffith staff, academics and students.
The building will cater to a variety of scientific teaching and research projects, with each level of the three-level building housing unique technical spaces.
Level O is home to the aquaria facility that will support aquatic experimental work, such as Associate Lecturer and PhD student Michelle Hobbs’, who will use this purpose-built aquaria facility to study the secrets of freshwater mussel filter feeding and burrowing behaviour.
Level 1 houses the soils research and teaching facility, which includes an area for pre-processing of soils samples, where they can be dried, sieved and ground for further analysis in the neighbouring soils chemistry laboratory or at other higher-level analytical facilities.
Senior Lecturer Dr Yunying Fang will use the soils research facility to process samples to understand the structural and nutrient properties of soils and how these may help soils capture and retain carbon, important for both agricultural productivity and as a mitigation for climate change.
Level 1 is also home to the soils teaching laboratory for subjects that are core in Griffith’s Bachelor of Environmental Science, with the position of the laboratory enabling easy access for our undergraduate students from the main part of the campus.
Level 2 houses the glasshouse facility, which currently includes two glasshouses with climate control and two ambient glasshouse spaces.
Lecturer Dr Natalie Jones wants to explore dormancy (a life history strategy that has evolved in some plants and animals that live in highly variable environments). Dr Jones is planning a series of experiments that will allow her to isolate different environmental conditions (heat, fire and flooding) and assess how they impact dormancy rates in plants and invertebrates.
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