An Extraordinary Story: Professor Craig Tepper
Cornell’s goal of providing a quality, transformative liberal arts education requires campus facilities that support learning and sustain a strong sense of community. The “Extraordinary Opportunities” campaign seeks funding for four facility renovations for our historic Hilltop – West Science Center, The Commons, King Chapel, and Pfeiffer Hall. Learn more ...
For Biology Professor Craig Tepper, “A quality liberal arts institution is one that provides intellectual opportunities for its students.”
At Cornell, that translates into “active scholarship,” and for Tepper, that means that students are active partners in his research, both on the Hilltop and at a coral reef study site in the Bahamas where the group performs coral transplantation experiments.
“The advantage to actively involving students in scholarship is that they leave Cornell years ahead of graduates from other institutions,” explains Tepper, who was awarded Cornell’s first Ringer Distinguished Professorship in 2007. “Our students are beyond just memorizing information. They’re designing experiments, recording results, analyzing results, and then devising new experiments.”
On the Cornell campus, that experimentation occurs in West Science Center, which houses laboratories, lecture halls, seminar rooms, and libraries for the departments of biology, chemistry, and physics.
Although the building has served students well for many years, today’s sophisticated science education demands up-to-date, sophisticated facilities.
Since West Science was built in the 1970s, “molecular biology and biochemistry have come to the forefront of the biological sciences. Unfortunately, the building is poorly outfitted for these types of experiments,” Tepper explains. “Labs are small, so students are crowded and jam up on equipment,” especially as the popularity of majors like biochemistry has grown in recent years.
The new 35,000-square-foot addition planned for West Science will transform this learning environment. Labs with sophisticated electronic and teaching equipment, as well as computerized lab stations, will provide “an incredible learning opportunity for our students,” Tepper says, continuing a tradition of academic vigor at a college that counts among its alumni the recipients of many Fulbright, Goldwater, and McElroy fellowships.
Tepper relishes hearing from graduates who have gone on to successful scientific careers. Quite a few weren’t aware of how unique Cornell’s learning environment was, but once they attend other institutions for graduate work, “they realize the quality and importance” of the Cornell experience, he says.
With the help of generous contributors, the new and improved West Science Center will continue Cornell’s tradition of transformative educational opportunities.
