In 2016, the 60-year-old Physics & Astronomy building on The University of New Mexico campus was a mess. The site and building were unsuitable for high-end research. The building lacked state-of-the-art teaching facilities and heating and cooling issues impacted the ability to conduct temperature-sensitive research.
The location on Lomas Boulevard across from the main campus meant students had to cross the busy road to get to class and vibrations from passing vehicles impeded research involving lasers. The decrepit building was also impeding research funding. Research grants mandated updated facilities. The Physics and Astronomy Department had lost competitiveness in going after major grants and had trouble recruiting faculty because of the condition of the building.
“The old building had reached the end of its useful life,” recalled Professor Richard Rand, chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department. “Most importantly, the laboratories had become a major obstacle to conducting forefront tabletop experimental physics research, which is a big part of what we do, for a range of reasons. The building was generally unattractive, which was bad for recruiting graduate students and new faculty. It also did not have adequate classroom or meeting space. The location across Lomas from the main campus was also a major drawback.”
In 2016, UNM went to the voters of New Mexico to ask for a General Obligation Bond (GO Bond) for $27 million for a facility that would live up to the university’s Research 1 status. The bond proceeds would fund the planning, design, construction, equipment, and furnishing of a new Physics and Astronomy Interdisciplinary Science (PAĺS) building on UNM’s main campus. The new PAĺS building would accommodate modern research labs and classrooms and enhance student achievement and retention in the STEM programs, as well as attracting and retaining talented faculty and students.
The PAĺS building had a total price tag of around $66 million. The GO Bond for $27 million was passed by the voters in November 2016, with 63 percent of the votes in favor of the measure. The rest of the funds came from New Mexico legislators and UNM institutional bonds i.e., student fees.
“We were extremely grateful to the voters of New Mexico in supporting this critical need for a new building,” Rand said. “It is something we first started talking about in the early ’90s. We also appreciated everyone at UNM who helped get our project onto the bond issue. We had an intensive role in planning PAĺS to make sure it met our current and future needs, especially regarding the lab space. We worked with some excellent folks in construction and architecture. It was a long journey, but in the end, we got a wonderful facility that we are really excited about. The labs are a game-changer for our experimental research.”
Construction was completed by late summer 2019. The PAĺS building grand opening was held virtually in 2020 during the UNM pandemic shutdown and research suffered substantial interruptions and delays.
“Once we all got moved in, it took a while to get used to the feel of PAĺS. It is such a different experience from the old building. But now we feel so fortunate to be able to work in such a unique place. Returning to work in PAĺS after the shutdown felt a bit like we were starting all over again… The classroom technology is much better than in our old building and we have nicer environments for learning. Being on main campus is also more convenient for our students. Our advanced level teaching labs are a vast improvement over the old building labs. Finally, the state-of-the-art research labs are allowing our students to get much more out of their research projects,” Rand said.
The stunning 137,000-square-foot facility boasts state-of-the-art research labs for Physics and interdisciplinary research from other departments. The building houses offices, meeting and seminar rooms, upper division teaching labs, and classrooms, including a 200-seat auditorium.
A dramatic series of six large murals titled The Cycle of Science created by the late drawing and painting professor Raymond Johnson for the first UNM Library in 1934 with funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) hangs in the lobby. The murals depict and are titled respectively Astronomy, Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Mathematics.
“Personally, I appreciated the bold decision to place a new building on campus in a striking modernist style,” Rand said. “It's something new for UNM but it reflects its function perfectly as a facility on the international forefront of science. Everyone who visits PAĺS seems to love it, and we've had a lot of envious visitors from other universities The lobby atrium is the focal point of PAĺS and is a great space for gathering and studying. The 200-seat colloquium room is a wonderful space to hear a talk or attend a class. We've started some great interactions with the ISC [Interdisciplinary Science Cooperative] folks too. Some of them are even in a cover band together now.”
Rand noted that the distinctive looking PAĺS building has even taken its place in recent pop culture: “It was fun to see PAĺS cast as the Geology Department of the University of Wyoming for an episode of [science fiction neo-Western television series] Outer Range on Prime. Lots of fake boulders and Josh Brolin in the lobby.”
PAÍS success stories
Interdisciplinary Science Cooperative
In 2020, UNM launched the Interdisciplinary Science Cooperative within the brand-new PAÍS building with the goal of increasing collaborative research opportunities across campus. While the pandemic presented some significant challenges, this goal has not only been realized, it has also expanded into some significant research opportunities for students, faculty, and for the State of New Mexico.
“The state-of-the-art capabilities that the PAÍS building provides have improved our ability to create more impactful research outcomes.”
- Jeff Rack
UNM Chemistry Professor and Interdisciplinary Science Cooperative director
“As the largest college on campus, UNM’s College of Arts & Sciences has a long history of providing some of the most diverse research opportunities to our students and our faculty," said Christopher Lippitt, professor of Geography and Environmental Studies. "With the Co-op, we have not only been able to expand on these opportunities within the college but throughout the university as a whole. Our research centers, such as ASPIRE, and labs are drawing attention to the fact that UNM is a leader in research and research education.”
“The state-of-the-art capabilities that PAÍS building provides have improved our ability to create more impactful research outcomes,” added Professor of Chemistry and ISC Director Jeff Rack.
Since 2020, the Co-op has hosted an annual Team Research Symposium, an event dedicated to bringing faculty, students, and external partners together in the spirit of producing more productive research teams. The inaugural Team Research Symposium in 2020 drew nearly 200 individuals from across campus and across the world. With 20 sessions spread across three days, participants were given opportunities to share best practices, learn about each other’s work, and make new connections through our virtual platform. Students and faculty were also given the opportunity to compete for prize money in team research concept competitions.
CHmPP
Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Comparative Human and Primate Physiology Center (CHmPP) Melissa Emery Thompson published research in 2023 that the Washington Post called "a landmark discovery." Published in Science, the study has also been highlighted by the New York Times for its revelation that at least one group of older female chimpanzees experience menopause. This trait has previously only been shared by a small number of whale species and, of course, female humans.
"The hormone data show a clear transition, with perimenopause in their 40s and onset of menopause around age 50. This is strikingly similar to the reproductive aging schedule in humans,” Emery Thompson said.
CSI
In 2021, The Center for Stable Isotopes (CSI) began hosting the world-renowned IsoCamp, which had been held at the University of Utah for the previous 25 years. IsoCamp is a preeminent international short course which provides a hybrid classroom, field, and laboratory course on stable isotopes to graduate students and postdocs from a wide variety of majors.
Students from across the globe attend internationally-renowned short course, IsoCamp
IsoCamp takes advantage of the unique facilities of both CSI and PAÍS. Throughout this unique field camp, students collect samples from diverse field sites around Albuquerque and process them using CSI’s sophisticated laboratory facilities, working in teams to create high-quality research projects, which are presented at the end of the course.
The Laboratory for Magneto-optical Spectroscopy
The Laboratory for Magneto-optical Spectroscopy is one of very few laboratories worldwide that can make broad-band steady state and time-resolved magneto-optical measurements. This technology promises to reveal electronic and magnetic details from a wide variety of commercially relevant photoactive materials.
Led by Rack, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students are exposed to a groundbreaking learning experience. The new classes of photochromic materials with photorefractive properties that are being created in this lab are allowing them to help pioneer brand new ways of storing holographic data and to become leaders within their field.
Nanomaterials Characterization Facility
In 2021, the Nanomaterials Characterization Facility (NCF) became one of a few labs within the country to house an Aberration Corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (AC-STEM). The instrument, a JEOL NEOARM, provides one of the highest resolutions currently available. UNM students have had the opportunity to enhance their own research using this incredible machine and are making advancements that will put them well ahead of their peers once they graduate.
Exoplanet discovery
In 1992, scientists made the landmark discovery of two planets orbiting a star outside of our solar system. Since then, the number of these planets, called exoplanets, has now surpassed 5,500 thanks to the discovery of five new exoplanets in 2023.
One of these new exoplanets, TOI 198 b, was discovered by Physics & Astronomy doctoral student Dominic Oddo and Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy Diana Dragomir. Together with their colleagues, their findings were published in an article titled Characterization of a Set of Small Planets with TESS and CHEOPS and an Analysis of Photometric Performance that was published in the Astronomical Journal.
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