FACILITIES & OTHER RESOURCES:
RESEARCH
[For the Facilities and Resources document, we have created two versions: one that highlights
FAU’s research strengths and resources, and another that provides an overview of FAU’s
educational infrastructure (student resources, etc.). This version of the Facilities and Resources
document highlights RESEARCH resources.
It is always best to highlight first the resources that are specifically available to the project. So,
for your proposed project, at the beginning of this document, include the following: any
resources that are specifically available to perform the project (descriptions of your lab space,
equipment within the lab, technical support for the equipment, etc.). For these resources,
discuss their capacities, pertinent capabilities, relative proximity and extent of availability to the
project.
After you have discussed the resources that are specifically available to your project, you may
want to add some information on other aspects of the intellectual and physical environment at
FAU. As such, we’ve included paragraphs below that may help you in crafting that information.
If your proposal involves several colleges at FAU, then you can copy and paste those
paragraphs below that would help to provide information on your collaborators’ colleges.
General information about FAU is also included. Feel free to adapt/edit as necessary, making
sure to adhere to the page limits and other formatting requirements of your agency guidelines.
At the end of the document, you will need to add information about facilities and resources
available at any other performance sites involved in the project. Also, Early Stage Investigators
should describe institutional support for new investigators (for NIH projects, consult the SF 424
R&R Application Guide, which provides instructions for preparing and submitting applications,
for additional requirements)].
FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY - OVERVIEW
Florida Atlantic University is categorized as a “High Research Activity” institution according to
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. In fiscal year 2015, the
university received $35 million in grant award funding. As part of its ten-year Strategic Plan
(2015 – 2025), the university outlined four “pillars” of research strength: healthy aging;
neuroscience; ocean science and engineering/environmental science; and sensing and smart
systems. These pillars comprise areas of focus that will guide future institutional goals and
strategic actions, and they are closely related to FAU’s existing regional and national strengths,
including our coastal location, diverse population, and neighboring research institutions.
Operating in a multi-county service region, investigators are able to take advantage of an array
of facilities available through FAU’s six different campuses. FAU has well-equipped labs in
areas such as molecular and protein chemistry, drug discovery, microscopy and cellular
analysis, clinical trial studies, high performance computing, and ecology, to name a few. The
university is also home to more than 38 research institutes and centers. FAU’s institutes and
centers reflect FAU’s research strengths (for example, the Institute for Ocean and Systems
Engineering—SeaTech, the Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center, the Florida
Center for Environmental Studies, and the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences,
among others).
In addition to the resources available through the university, FAU investigators can also avail
themselves of the close partnerships that FAU has formed with world-renowned research
organizations based in South Florida. FAU scientists can form collaborations with such
prominent research organizations as Scripps Florida and the Max Planck Florida Institute for
Neuroscience (both of which are located on FAU’s Jupiter campus). FAU has established
reciprocity agreements with these institutions, allowing FAU investigators to use their prominent
core facilities at a reduced rate.
Opportunities are also available for partnering with the local private sector and
commercializing research. The Research Park at Florida Atlantic University, housed on the
Boca Raton campus, is the only state university-affiliated research park in South Florida. It
provides a space for growing research technology and is home to high tech companies. FAU
has also launched Tech Runway, which provides a mentoring program for entrepreneurs and
their technology start-up ventures. One of its partners is the Office of Undergraduate Research
and Inquiry at FAU, thus providing a means for FAU students to launch their enterprising ideas.
FAU investigators can also rely on a well-managed infrastructure to support their research
efforts. More than 40 employees in the Division of Research are available to assist
investigators with a range of proposal needs — from proposal submission to post-award
activities to technology transfer. The Division of Research maintains a Research Integrity office
that assists investigators with IRB and IACUC protocols; it also provides regular training in the
responsible conduct of research. FAU’s Veterinary Services unit employs a full-time veterinarian
and support staff.
The FAU Libraries operate on five different university campuses and house approximately 3.7
million books, periodicals, government documents, microforms, maps, media and other
materials. The electronic resources of the library include more than 408,100 full-text electronic
books and 23,500 full-text electronic journals. Special collections, including one on early
America, are also available.
DOROTHY F. SCHMIDT COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS
The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters is comprised of 12 departments:
Anthropology, Communication and Multimedia Studies, English, History, Languages, Linguistics
& Comparative Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Theatre and Dance,
Visual Arts and Art History, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Faculty members in the
college engage in a wide array of research, scholarly and creative activities, and the faculty is
committed to growing research endeavors in the College’s four main disciplinary concentrations:
the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Faculty
members in departments across the College engage in wide array of scholarly activities and
have won prestigious awards such as Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships, the O’Henry
Prize, the Pushcart Prize and the Foreign Policy Association Medal, among others. One of the
College’s signature themes is the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Initiative, which brings
scholars and artists from across the university together to work on research, pedagogy, and
community outreach.
Research and creative achievements in the Arts includes the departments comprising the
School of the Arts: Music, Theatre, Visual Arts and Art History. Faculty members in the
Department of Music are active regionally, nationally and internationally as solo and
collaborative performers, conductors, recording artists, scholars, composers, educators,
lecturers, adjudicators and mentors. The faculty of the Department of Visual Arts and Art
History, through their own significant research and creative activities, fosters the preservation of
artistic legacies with an interest in originality and innovation within artistic and research practice.
The faculty in the Department of Theatre and Dance are a community of artists and scholars
dedicated to teaching, researching and serving the theater arts in Southeastern Florida. The
School of the Arts is home to the University Theatre, two black box theaters, the Schmidt
University Galleries, The Ritter Gallery, Second Avenue Studio Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, a
visual arts complex comprised of multiple studio spaces for painting, drawing, sculpture,
photography, ceramics, printmaking, digital imaging and graphic design. The Commercial Music
program boasts a state-of-the-art recording studio, which produces several CDs each year
through Hoot Wisdom. The College just opened a new professional resident theatre company,
FAU’s Theatre Lab, which features riveting new plays and astonishing new musicals. Fine wine
and light dinner fare complete the Theatre experience at the Theatre Lab Café, both located on
the first floor of the Parliament Hall.
Humanities research is conducted by faculty members working in individual departments and in
cross-disciplinary teams from the departments of English, History, Languages, Linguistics &
Comparative Literature, and Philosophy. English faculty contribute both scholarly manuscripts
on literature as well as award-winning creative writing projects in poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
The Department of History includes highly recognized authors of scholarly books, essays and
articles in American, European, Asian and Latin American history. The department is steward of
the Weiner “Spirit of America” Collection and hosts the annual Larkin symposium on the U.S
presidency. Languages, Linguistics, and Comparative Literature faculty publish on world
literatures, cultures and languages that are relevant to the local community in South Florida and
the Caribbean and Latin America, but also beyond, to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Our
Linguistics faculty contribute cutting-edge research on semiotics, second language acquisition,
phonetics, psycholinguistics, and endangered languages and have recently established a stateof-the-art Acoustics Research lab. The Philosophy faculty contribute to a variety of subfields in
their discipline and edit an undergraduate journal. The Schmidt Eminent Scholar of the
Humanities Dr. Richard Shusterman and colleagues have developed the Center for Body, Mind,
and Culture. Two other college Eminent Scholars, Dr. Fred Greenspahn and Dr. Alan Berger,
hold research chairs in Judaic Studies and Holocaust Studies, respectively. Recently, the
college supported an interdisciplinary cluster of research activity in Digital Humanities and
Social Justice. The Digital Humanities and Social Justice group focuses on topics such as
immigration reform, freedom of speech, human rights and discrimination; in order to advance its
mission, the group is able to take advantage of a newly-created Advanced Media Production
Lab at FAU.
Research in the Social Sciences focuses on issues that are of importance to the South Florida
region, as well as topics of national and international implications. Investigators in the
department of Anthropology are actively conducting research on focus areas such as the
evolution of the human brain, archaeology and human-environment interactions. Investigators
in this department have made important findings, such as recent the discovery of a new species
of African monkey, known as the Lesula, by Dr. Kate Detwiler. Faculty research in this
department is supported by 4,000 feet of laboratory facilities that include a complete physical
processing and cataloguing complex for preparation and preservation of archaeological and
osteological specimens, facilities for drafting, lithic imaging and bone histology. There is also a
complete woodworking shop to construct and maintain research equipment. The department is
also home to the Southeast Region Center for Public Archaeology, sponsored by the Florida
Public Archaeology Network and an archaeology field school in Ecuador. The Department of
Sociology’s research interests range across the field: welfare policy and rural poverty, global
social movements, environmental struggles, food systems, outbreaks of political violence, the
social determinants of prejudices, the social construction of self and identity – and more. The
faculty in the Department of Political Science pursue four lines of research: American Politics,
Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Public Law and Policy. The department hosts
the Jack Miller Forum and the award-winning Diplomacy Program.
Researchers in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies (SCMS) study a wide
array of human communicative activities, ranging from face-to-face human interactions to
mediated communication to computer animation. Crossing disciplines in the Arts, Humanities
and Social Sciences, faculty of this school produce scholarship and creative work ranging from
rhetorical studies to film and media studies to cross-cultural communication studies to
journalism to visual media and film production. The school is home to a variety of digital media
initiatives including a classical radio station, a campus TV station, various film and alternative
media festivals, the American Democracy Project and three scholarly journals. A truly unique
collaboration between SCMS and Living Room Theaters (LRT) provides the community with
first-run, independent, and all-digital cinema from around the globe during evening hours.
During the day, LRT provides graduate students with four state-of-the-art theaters in which to
teach and screen films.
Research in the Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies is interdisciplinary and
has grown from the strengths that researchers both inside and outside of the college have
cultivated. The Surviving Slavery: Sex Trafficking in South Florida group was created in order to
address the gap in outreach efforts to victims of sex trafficking. The research cluster’s focus is
tightly connected to the make-up of the FAU and South Florida population, both of which are
comprised of high numbers of working-class and immigrant peoples; as such, these populations
can be effective in forming connections to the issue and building support for victims.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
The College of Business is among the largest colleges of Business in the United States, with
over 8,000 students, six departments, several centers for research and engagement and a
comprehensive slate of interdisciplinary and professional development programs. Named one of
the “Best Business Schools” in 2012 by The Princeton Review, the College offers general
business programs in each of the core business disciplines including Accounting, Economics,
Finance, Information Technology, Management and Marketing. Specialized programs include
Hospitality Management, Sport Management, and Health Care Administration. The FAU College
of Business is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the
Association to Advance College School of Business (AACSB), a designation held by only 719
business schools in 48 countries.
Research centers include the Adams Center for Entrepreneurship and the FAU Center for
Economic Education. The Adams Center for Entrepreneurship coordinates the annual FAU
Business Plan Competition, which gives FAU students, alumni, local middle and high school
students and members of the business community an opportunity to test their business ideas.
The FAU Center for Economic Education promotes economic education by offering in-service
workshops and programs for K-12 educators in its service area. These workshops and
programs emphasize active learning techniques to introduce economics, personal finance and
entrepreneurship into a number of subjects, including geography, mathematics, history, civics
as well as many other subjects. Since 2004, the Center has offered 115 programs to 2,100
teachers. The total contact hours of these programs have totaled almost 500 hours. Many of the
programs provided teachers with either print materials or CD-ROMs of curriculum materials.
The College of Business also houses a state-of-the-art Trading Room that seats 40 people and
showcases real time feeds from Reuters. The Trading Room replicates a real-world financial
trading experience and functions as a classroom and a laboratory that puts FAU graduates on
the leading edge in the financial services industry. In partnership with Bloomberg®, the
Financial Analyst Program (FAP) equips students with cutting edge skills in financial analysis
and equity research.
COLLEGE FOR DESIGN AND SOCIAL INQUIRY
The College for Design and Social Inquiry (CDSI), is a constellation of professional programs
unique in American academia. Comprising the Schools of Architecture, Criminology and
Criminal Justice, Public Administration, Social Work, and Urban and Regional Planning, the
college educates students in professions that work toward establishing and maintaining safe,
healthy, and sustainable communities.
Four out of the five CDSI schools are situated at the Boca campus, with the School of
Architecture based in an urban campus in Fort Lauderdale. The college currently employs 96
faculty and staff and offers 13 majors at all levels of study to more than 3,000 undergraduate
and over 700 graduate students.
We have a longstanding track record of external fund procurement for research and related
activities, and an emerging research infrastructure that will bolster these capacities. We have
scholars who are actively working in one or more of the university’s four pillars as outlined in its
2015-25 strategic plan, A race to excellence. The Schools of Public Administration, Social Work,
and Urban Planning each have at least one scholar who is currently engaged on federally
funded research through either NIH or NSF. Scholars in these Schools, as well as in
Architecture and Criminal Justice, have had significant funding through foundations, public and
private funds, local or state granting authorities, among other auspices. In 2016, the College
struck a research infrastructure advisory committee consisting of research leaders across FAU
in cognate Colleges (Education, Engineering, Medicine, Nursing, Science), and we anticipate
further expansion of our research infrastructures (grant writing, financial and project
management, editing, bio-statistical expertise) with further successes on our end. Ours is an
inherently interdisciplinary College, whose signature footprint involves the practical application
of professional expertise to resolving social and community issues in our region and beyond.
We are serious about being involved as co-investigators, co-PIs, and other capacities, on
funded programs of research; the websites for each of our five Schools elaborate faculty
expertise.
CDSI is also home to several research and service centers which reflect the college’s strengths
in the areas of aging, child welfare, community engagement and spatial analysis technology,
among others. These centers and institutes are listed below.
In the School of Social Work:
Aging Academy, which was established to:
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Expand competency-driven education, field instruction and training
Incorporate aging issues and practice content within current curriculum
Increase research and community service activities focused on aging and elder care
Enhance internship placements and community service within aging service continuums
Offer professional development and educational series
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Build stronger university-community partnerships
Recruit and mentor students designated as geriatric scholars specializing in aging
Produce leaders and skilled practitioners to meet growing aging population needs
The Child Welfare Institute has the following goals:
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Partner with public and community-based child welfare agencies in the state of Florida
Professionalization of child welfare workforce through university-community partnerships
Extend the School of Social Work's existing research, service, training, and education efforts
in child welfare
Apply for and secure new grants and contracts in research, service, training, and education
in the field of child welfare
Discover, analyze, and document emerging child welfare trends at the national, state, and
local levels
Establish and maintain partnerships with child welfare organizations at the national, state,
and local levels
Coordinate, collaborate, and streamline administration of a variety of faculty efforts in child
welfare
Enhance teaching and learning experiences through faculty and student involvement in
applied research in the community
Office of Substance Use Disorder, Mental Health and Recovery Research has the following
priorities:
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To foster internationally recognized research that will garner external financial support and
the international attention of interdisciplinary scholars
To act as a center of addictions treatment research for the region of south Florida
To promote excellence in addictions treatment, including the delivery of courses, workshops,
and other activities for social work and allied disciplinary practitioners in addictions.
To mobilize knowledge in the broader community regarding addictions and addictions
treatment services
To promote the activities of the Office via press releases, social media activities, and
external fund procurement.
To encourage visits by internationally respected scholars and practitioners, who could
contribute to the Center and enhance its teaching, knowledge mobilization, and research
missions.
In the School of Public Administration:
The John Scott Dailey Florida Institute of Government (IOG) was established at FAU in
1982. Its primary mission is to forge closer government-university ties to address the needs of
state, regional, and local governments and non-profit agencies. The IOG meets the needs of its
constituents by coordinating training workshops for all levels of local government employees,
technical assistance services, and policy conferences, seminars, and training workshops
focusing on issues of public sector interest or concern. The Institute’s service area includes
Broward, Glades, Hendry, Indian River, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Okeechobee, Palm
Beach, and St. Lucie counties.
In the School of Urban and Regional Planning:
The Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions (CUES) is dedicated to addressing the
urban and environmental issues confronting our society though active engagement, education,
and research. CUES works with policymakers and the public and private sectors in the pursuit
of options for promoting responsible community development and redevelopment, preserving
natural systems, and ensuring economic prosperity.
The Visual Planning Technology (VPT) Lab (previously called the FAU GIS Lab) was
established in 1987 and is housed in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida
Atlantic University. This state-of-the-art facility continues to be a hub for advanced policy
research and spatial analysis. The role of the Lab continues to evolve as it engages in and
takes the lead on multidisciplinary projects and research that have national relevance and
applicability. Funding sources include the National Science Foundation, the United States
Geological Survey, and other research centers and institutes. The VPT Lab comprises a stateof-the-art facility for advanced geographic information systems analysis, location intelligence
and visual planning technologies.
In the School of Architecture:
The mission of the MetroLAB Collaborative is to engage faculty, students, and the community
in collaborative activities that advance scholarship and improve the well-being of the community
within a metropolitan sub-tropical setting. The MetroLAB Collaborative endeavors to discover
knowledge through inquiry, guided by the disciplines at the university, to address local and
global challenges; and to explore, exchange, and apply knowledge and information for the
mutual benefit, resilience, vitality and health of our communities and the regional physical
environment.
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
The College of Education at FAU prepares educators and educational professionals to serve
six public school districts, among which are two of the largest and most demographically diverse
districts in the nation, Broward and Palm Beach County School Districts. The College comprises
seven departments offering 44 undergraduate and graduate degree programs with 344 faculty
and adjunct faculty, and over 4,000 students. The College of Education’s academic departments
are Communication Sciences and Disorders; Counselor Education; Curriculum, Culture and
Educational Inquiry; Educational Leadership and Research Methodology; Exceptional Student
Education; Exercise Science and Health Promotion; and Teaching and Learning.
In addition, the College oversees four University public laboratory schools whose three-fold
mission is to be a demonstration site for teacher education; develop curricula; conduct research.
These schools cover all levels of P-20 education, from an early childhood education and
research center to a dual enrollment high school. The College also includes Pine Jog
Environmental Education Center, which provides extension services in environmental education
to the Broward and Palm Beach County Schools and the broader community; the Center for
Autism & Related Disabilities which provides expert consulting, training and support, at no
charge, for people with autism and related disabilities, their families and the professionals
serving them; and the Communication Disorders Clinic which offers diagnostic and treatment
services for a wide variety of communication disorders.
The College of Education supports a vigorous research program with faculty conducting
research in a variety of education-related fields. The College's faculty have been awarded
numerous grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the Institute of Education Sciences,
the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the
Department of Defense, the Florida Department of Education, and a number of state, local, and
private agencies. The College has close ties to the South Florida area school districts including
Broward and Palm Beach Counties which are the sixth and eleventh largest school districts in
the country by enrollment.
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
The College of Engineering and Computer Science is home to three departments — Civil,
Environmental and Geomatics Engineering; Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science; and Ocean and Mechanical Engineering. Faculty members are engaged in education
and cutting-edge research in a variety of fields. Ten research centers provide support for college
research and pedagogical activities. Collaborations with industry, government and academic
institutions are the hallmark of the college’s research activities.
The Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering (CEGE) faculty
members are active in research supported by federal, state and local funding sources that
include the involvement of many of the Department’s graduate and undergraduate students in
various fields of engineering dealing with infrastructure, the environment, and spatial
information. The Department’s research labs offer an array of facilities and resources:
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The Materials and Structures Laboratory. The lab is equipped with the state-of-the-art
structures and construction laboratory instrumentation, computer facilities, and machine
shops. The broad range of materials/structural testing equipment and instruments include:
Super “L” Tinius Olsen Universal Testing Machine (60,000-pound capacity with pressure
transducer weighing), servo valve loading system, model 602 remote display and controller,
MTS 810: Closed loop system with full digital control and capacity of 110 kips, Test
Resources 314Q Universal Testing Machine: Capacity 22.5 kips, Tinius Olsen 11,240-lb
capacity tension compression with PC control and data acquisition, ELE International 250
kips compression testing machine, and Gilson Company, Inc. 400 kips compression testing
machine. The laboratory was renovated in 2015.
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The Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory. The lab is fully equipped to conduct basic and
advanced experiments for developing innovative and high-performance geo-materials, geocomposites, and recycled materials for improved resiliency and sustainability. The laboratory
houses modern testing machines equipped with sensors and instrumentations, including
dynamic and non-destructive testing facilities for materials and infrastructure elements
relevant to bridges, buildings, foundations, pavements, marine geotechnics and off-shore
structures. Major equipment includes CKC cyclic triaxial machine, ELE digital tri test load
frame, ultrasonic pulse velocity NDT Machine, maturity meter, ELE direct shear machine,
ELE consolidation test sets, ELE unconfined compression, and thermotron environmental
chambers.
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The Laboratory for Engineered Environmental Solutions (Lab.EES). This research lab’s
mission is to provide access to scientific and analytical equipment for engineers conducting
environmental research. Significant instruments include a Waters high-performance liquid
chromatography system with UV detector, a Teledyne/Tekmar Apollo 9000 total organic
carbon and total nitrogen analyzer with autosampler and boat sampler, a Waters ion
chromatograph, a Barnstead/Thermolyne NANOpure Diamond RO system, a Fisher
Accuspin model 3R benchtop refrigerated centrifuge, several incubators, a Barnstead Type
1400 muffle furnace, several drying ovens, a microscale Ace Glass 7880 photocatalytic
reactor, a 7840/7836 Ace Glass bench scale photocatalytic reactor, a pilot scale falling film
photocatalytic reactor, a reverse osmosis pilot plant, walk-in freezer, 4 chemical fume hoods,
3 autoclave sterilizers, and a custom bioassay testing frame. In addition, some newer water
quality testing equipment, including pH meters, conductivity probes, turbidometers, high
accuracy weighing scales, dissolved oxygen probes, portable fluorometer, several
laboratory spectrophotometers, and a small boat for collecting water quality samples in the
field have been added. An IDEXX system is available to conduct microbial testing for total
coliform, E. coli, and Enterococcus. In addition, 2 biosafety cabinets (Labconco Purifier
Delta Class II, Type A2) were also acquired to have the capability of safely enumerating
environmental samples for microbial contamination. The lab was renovated in 2012 and
2015.
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The Multimodal Intelligent Transportation Systems Laboratory (MITSL). The lab is
equipped with 20 thin client computers and state-of-the-art simulation and optimization
software, focusing on testing and evaluation of new transportation management and
operational strategies and traveler information technologies. The lab also includes five
supercomputers that support department research, education and outreach
efforts, providing laboratory facilities for graduate students as well as educational resources
for course instructors and transportation professionals.
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The Hydrosystems Research Laboratory (HRL). This lab supports simulation and
modeling capabilities essential for hydrological, climate variability and climate change
studies. HRL houses several stand-alone machines along with different computational
environments accessing cluster computing resources with large RAM and specialized
servers. A number of hydrological modeling software available in public domain, ArcGIS,
watershed modeling system (WMS) and several others dealing with hydro-meteorology
(precipitation data processing, infilling, radar-based precipitation analysis). Software
developed at HRL are also available on several computational platforms. A variety
of software dealing with optimization and artificial neural networks, data mining and
statistical analysis are also available. Computationally intense tasks that handle large data
sets in space and time and processing capabilities to handle geospatial analysis and
geostatistics are also available for hydrologic simulation and water resources management
studies.
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The Geomatics Engineering Laboratory. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art data
acquisition, processing and display facilities for mapping and surveying. The data acquisition
equipment include High Definition Laser Scanner (ScanStation II), Mobile Mapping Unit
consisting of Geo-iNav GPS/IMU (Global Positioning System and Inertial Measurement Unit)
unit and 3lb and 700K points/sec capacity laser scanner, 3- Leica RTK-GPS units, 2- Leica
and TopCon Robotic Total Stations, 7 Leica levels and one SC660 FLIR Thermal camera.
For data processing and visualization, the lab is equipped with 3- SOCET SET
photogrammetric processing 3D workstations, Leica Cyclone 3D Laser Scanning software
and Campus-wide ArcGIS software.
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Laboratory for Adaptive Traffic Operations and Management (LATOM). This lab is a
Traffic-Operations-Center-like facility which is used both for research and instructional
activities. Equipped with the state-of-the-art software, hardware, and communications the
lab serves local, regional, and international partners in developing new methods and tools in
controlling, managing, and monitoring transportation infrastructure. Since its inception in
2009 the LATOM has been engaged in more than a dozen funded research projects with a
total budget over a million US dollars. The major LATOM’s research emphasis is Adaptive
Traffic Signal Control (ATSC) systems, an area of traffic operations for which the LATOM is
one of the best-equipped research facilities, worldwide.
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Laboratory of Nanotechnology in Environmental and Life Science. This wet laboratory
meets the criteria of Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2). It is equipped with instruments needed to
conduct research on the environmental and health impact of nanomaterials, and
environmental nanotechnology. It has a Malvern Zetasizer Nano ZS90 which has the
functions of Dynamic Light Scattering and Zeta Potential Analyzer, an E1 model (Q-sense)
of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), and free access to an
Agilent 5420 atomic force microscope (AFM). The lab is also equipped with a refrigerator, a
freezer, a water bath, a pH meter, a chemical fume hood, and a centrifuge. There are also
various shared equipment, including biological safety cabinets, fluorescent microscopes,
electronic microbalances, etc.
Faculty of the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
(CEECS) conduct research in diverse areas that reside in the union of disciplines covered by its
three programs of electrical engineering, computer engineering and computer science. The
particular areas of expertise currently in the Department are in the broad areas of big data
analytics, bioengineering & bioinformatics, cyber security, mobile computing, software
engineering, multimedia systems, signal, image and video processing and sensor fusion,
embedded systems, wireless networks, micro and nanotechnology in medicine, microwaves,
electromagnetics, communications, controls, signal processing and engineering education.
CEECS faculty and graduate students conduct research in a variety of department laboratories.
Micro and Nanotechnology in Medicine Lab: This lab implements microfluidic and
techniques in nanobiotechnology to create novel diagnostics for emerging pathogens,
manipulative techniques for fertility enhancement, and developing new screening methods
for cancer and tumor cell detection.
RF, Microwave & Satellite Communication: RF instrumentation for investigations and
studies up to 22 GHz and a Faraday enclosure for RF studies.
Video Processing and Multimedia Laboratory: Physiological and perception models of
human vision to video processing, security and surveillance.
TECORE Networks Laboratory: Equipped by the Tecore Corporation - the laboratory’s
main focus is wireless research from the cyber physical layer up to protocols and
applications in mobile computing.
CEECS Systems and Services Lab: This lab’s mission is to provide electrical, electronic
and computer technical services and support to the university and the community at large.
The lab produces 3D printed designs, printed circuit boards, and completed electronic
designs.
Custom surface mount and through hole double-sided PCBs are fabricated in-house using a
LPKF ProtoMat S63 PCB machining system.
Equipment includes Tektronix MDO4045-3 Multidomain Analyzer with 3 GHz Spectrum
Analyzer; Logic Analyzer; Signal Analyzer and integrated 500MHz / 2.5G sample/s four
channel oscilloscope; a solder reflow oven; surface mounted tools; and rework equipment.
CAD software includes: Eagle, KiCad, Solidworks, AutoCAD, PSpice and many other titles.
Two Tektronix MDO3024-3 multi-domain analyzers with 3 GHz spectrum analyzer, signal
analyzer and integrated 200MHz / 2.5G sample/s four channel oscilloscope.
Jupiter Campus - Big Data Training and Research Laboratory: High-Performance
Computing Cluster established with funds from the National Science Foundation awarded to
undertake the processing and managing of extremely large quantities of information.
College of Engineering and Computer Science Cloud Computing
The college’s private cloud is powered by the industry leader in virtualization — VMWare. The
College utilizes DELL hardware and COHO storage along with NVIDIA GPUs (3D acceleration)
to provide a desktop-as-a-service to students, faculty and staff. In addition to regular
administrative and academic computing, virtualization to power a self-service cloud for research
initiatives in the college is utilized. A list of key equipment follows:
4 x Brocade VNX 48 Port 10 Gbe Switches
16 x Dell R7X0 Servers – 256 GB RAM, 2 x Intel Xeon CPUs, 2 x NVIDIA K1 GPUs, 1 x
Teradici Accelerator
2 x Coho DataStream Storage Nodes + 2 x Arista Networks SDN Switch (70 TB) – 10 Gbe
Interconnect
The Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering (OME) is heavily involved in
research and scholarly activities funded by industry, state and federal agencies. Research areas
of special interest include, but are not limited to: autonomous marine vehicles, underwater
acoustic imaging and communication, physical oceanography, hydrodynamics and acoustics of
marine vehicles, robotics and controls, biomimetics and bio-inspired propulsion, alternative
energy, materials, helicopter dynamics and structures, microfluidic sensors and microscale fluid
mechanics and heat transfer. Faculty working in bioengineering research are currently exploring
cutting-edge technologies, including microfluidic biosensors, stem cell and tissue
engineering, drug delivery, disease diagnostics, BioMEMS, advanced prostheses, and brainmachine interfaces.
The Center of Marine Materials is the only organized academic unit in the country dedicated
specifically to the study of marine materials and corrosion. Seatech - The Institute for Ocean
and Systems Engineering, located in Dania Beach, Florida, provides an intellectual
environment for advanced ocean engineering research and technology development.
The OME department has the following laboratory facilities that are used in both education and
research.
Boca Facilities:
 A state-of-the-art materials laboratory that houses tensile testing machines for macroscale testing, including static and fatigue tests, high temperature tests and metallurgical
analysis.
 A micro/nanotechnology lab for materials analysis that houses micro-tensile testing
machine, with environmental chamber, nano-indentation system, and Atomic Force
Microscope. This lab is especially suitable for biological tests.
 Anechoic Chamber for acoustic-related research.
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A full-scale robotics lab that houses multiple robotic arms, a dexterous artificial hand with
integrated tactile sensors, prosthetic hands, parallel and suction manipulators, drones,
soft robot fabrication capabilities, and smart-material actuators.
A cleanroom facility for microfabrication with photolithography and softlithography.
A microfluidic lab for particle manufacturing and multiphase transport phenomena at
microscale under a wide range of pressures and temperatures
A soft lithography lab for microfluidic device fabrication.
A living devices/biosensor lab for biomechanics, point-of-care diagnosis, and smart &
connected health.
A Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM) lab for biomaterials, stem
cells, tissue engineering, and drug delivery.
In addition to the above labs, the department has a machine shop that offers 3D printing
capabilities, waterjet machining systems and an electronics shop.
SeaTech Facilities:
 State-of-the-art materials testing and characterization lab that houses high-capacity
tensile testing systems for static and fatigue testing. A Scanning Electron Microscope
(SEM), X-ray diffraction system, and environmental chamber.
 Acoustic laboratory housing various sensors, acoustic communication systems and
acoustic chambers.
 Hydrodynamics lab housing a large flow tank and a small flow tank with a laser
measurement system, an acoustic doppler velocimeter, air bearing system and multiple
force sensors.
 Surface vehicle laboratory housing various types of surface vehicles, associated control
systems and LIDAR systems.
 Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) laboratory housing various models of
underwater vehicles, AUV capture system and floating platforms.
 Corrosion lab housing a tank with continuous seawater flow, multiple other corrosion
tanks and facilities for accelerated corrosion and testing.
 High-speed camera and optics accessories
 Laser cutter
In addition to the above facilities, the department has a machine shop and an electronics shop
that are both used for education and research.
HARRIET L. WILKES HONORS COLLEGE
The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College located in Jupiter, Florida is adjacent to The Scripps
Research Institute Florida and Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. The curriculum is
a set of specially designed classes all offered at an honors level. The college grants a
bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Science with concentrations in particular studies.
Academic pathway programs are available for students interested in medicine, nursing,
business, education, engineering and law. Scientific research is encouraged as are
collaborations with the adjacent biomedical institutes. Each year, more than 60 percent of
Honors College graduates immediately proceed to graduate school, professional school or law
school. All students in the Honors College must engage in undergraduate research as a
requirement for graduation and all full-time faculty members in the Honors College are expected
to supervise undergraduate research and inquiry projects.
CHARLES E. SCHMIDT COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
The Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine (CES COM) was officially approved to grant the
Medical Degree by the Florida Universities Board of Trustees and the state in 2010. Currently
the CES COM is comprised of two departments. The Integrated Medical Sciences Department
contains many of the faculty involved in the MD program’s curriculum entitled the “Integrated
Patient Focused Curriculum” which focuses on the principle that future physicians should learn
essential basic science information in the context of patient care, patient case studies and the
practice of clinical skills. The Department of Biomedical Science partners with the Charles E.
Schmidt College of Science in offering a joint doctoral program in integrative biology.
The CES COM also provides state-of-the-art equipment such as the Flow Cytometry Core
Facility. The Flow Cytometry Core Facility provides access to a state-of-the-art analyzer, cell
sorter and workstation and provides assistance to investigators and students with experimental
design, data acquisition/analysis and interpretation. There are currently two flow cytometers in
the core facility: the BD FACS Calibur analyzer and the BD FACS Aria high-speed digital benchtop cell sorter. The BD FACS Calibur is a six parameter instrument equipped with two lasers, a
488-nm argon-ion laser and a 635-nm red diode laser, capable of detecting 4 fluorescent
signals. The BD FACS Aria is a sixteen parameter instrument equipped with four fiber-opticlinked solid-state lasers, a 488-nm blue Sapphire laser, a 633-nm red HeNe laser, a 405-nm
violet laser, and a 335-nm UV laser, capable of detecting 14 fluorescent signals. The FACS Aria
can perform two- and four- way bulk sorting for a variety of tube sizes as well as automatic cell
deposition (ACDU) for sorting into multi-well plates or onto microscope slides. The FACS Aria is
also equipped with aerosol management (AM) and Temperature Control (TC) options.
The animal care and use program at Florida Atlantic University is centralized and directed by a
full time veterinarian, trained in laboratory animal medicine and board certified by the American
College for Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM). Back-up veterinary care is arranged with a
DVM working as a research scientist at the Boca Raton campus. The veterinarian is supported
by a Training Coordinator to fulfill the federal mandate of training all personnel participating in
handling, care and experimentation involving animal models. In addition, the animal care
program employs an Animal Care Supervisor and several Animal Care Technicians who are
certified by AALAS and take care of the daily operations in the different facilities. Health
assessment is performed and documented for all animals, 7 days per week. A comprehensive
rodent health surveillance program for monitoring pathogenic agents and animal well-being is in
place for the animal care program. FAU has an Animal Welfare Assurance on file with NIHOLAW, (Assurance Number A3883-01expires March 31, 2016). The FAU Animal Care and Use
Program fully comply with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (The Guide),
the Public Health Service Policy on the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (PHS
Policy) and all state as well as local regulations. Special attention is paid to anesthesia and
analgesia to reduce pain/distress when applicable. Pain relief will be provided based upon the
approved protocol or if need be, veterinary intervention.
The COM animal facility is a conventional 3647 sq. ft. vivarium that houses mice and rats. Each
animal room is equipped with three or four individual cubicles allowing separation of animal
colonies by PI or research study. Mice are housed in micro-isolator cages and water provided
via water bottle. Rats are housed in either micro-isolator cages or in open top cages on racks
where low level chlorine dioxide treated water is provided via automatic watering system. Cage
change is accomplished using a changing station (i.e. laminar flow hood). Individual cubicles are
opened only one at a time. Animals are fed dedicated rodent chow (Teklad 2019 or Teklad 2014
or Teklad 8640). Environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, ventilation criteria
and light are controlled and monitored via a computerized “Watchdog” system in each cubicle.
Caging and supplies are sanitized through a rack washer and/or sterilized via an autoclave
within the facility. The vivarium contains a surgical suite as well. Animal biohazard level 2
(ABSL2) studies are supported within a dedicated location of the facility. Animals can be
returned from individual research labs in the same building as approved by the AV. Restricted
access and PPE such as disposable gowns and shoe covers are required for entry to the animal
facility. The vivarium is serviced by dedicated animal care staff.
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE EQUIPMENT LIST
Available within the shared core laboratory space (11868 sq. ft) in the FAU College of Medicine
are 1 darkroom equipped with Kodak film processor, 2 coldrooms, and shared equipment rooms
that house 13 ultralow freezers, 4 autoclaves, Microm cryostat, 2 Perkin-Elmer UV/Vis
spectrophotometers, 2 Perkin-Elmer Luminescence spectrometers, 2 Beckman ultracentrifuges,
3 Beckman high speed centrifuges, 1 Beckman Allegra refrigerated table-top centrifuge, 2
Sorvall refrigerated table-top centrifuges, Taylor Wharton liquid nitrogen storage, New
Brunswick fermentor, 3 Barnstead waterbath/shakers, four Barnstead water purification
systems, UVP Epi Chemi darkroom gel documentation system, Eppendorf vacuum evaporator
with Heto cold trap, Glassware baking oven, Hybridization oven, Packard scintillation counter,
Packard gamma counter, 2 ice machines, 6 biosafety cabinets, 2 clean bench hoods, 9 CO2
incubators, 12 fume hoods, 2 Environmental incubator shakers, Amersham Phast gel system,
Packard Bioscience Scan Array for gene chip analysis, AD Instruments Radnoti- Heart system,
Carl Zeiss LSM 700 Confocal Microscope, Olympus Stereo dissecting microscope with camera,
and Olympus AX70 Fluorescent microscope with Magnafire and Macrofire digital cameras, BD
Biosciences FACS Calibur with FACSLoader and FACSAria instruments, Olympus CX41 and
CKX41 microscopes, Waters HPLC system, BioRad Personal Molecular Imager, Molecular
Devices Spectramax M5 microplate reader, Stratagene MX3005P Real-Time PCR, GE
Healthcare Nanovue Spectrophotometer, Eppendorf Thermomixer and vortex, Nanodrop
spectrophotometer, Cell Harvester, Agilent Bioanalyzer, Sorvall Refrigerated microfuge,
Labscale TFF protein system, Leica cryostat, Mettler MX5 Analytical microbalance,
Fluorescence contractility system, BioRad Profinia Protein purification system, ITC Calorimeter
with injector assembly, BioRadFraction collector with 2 pumps, Beckman Optimax tabletop
ultracentrifuge, Kodak Image Station 4000R, 2 Barnstead refrigerated incubators, Nikon TE 300
microscope with digital camera, Slit lamp with digital camera, Bel-Art Klett Colorimeter, DSI
Telemetric system, Qiagen QiaCube, BioRad power supply, Microvent 1 ventilator for mice and
rats. Infusion pump and stand, Vital Signs Monitor,FLUOStar Omega plate reader, Five-choice
serial reaction time task chamber, Vibrotome, LiCor Odyssey imaging system, temperature
monitored glass fronted refrigerator, Hydroflex plate washer ThermoFisher Spectrophotometer,
BioRad TransBlot Turbo, Miltenyi Automacs with Pro autolabeling kit, Blitz system, Ad
Instruments Powerlab 4/35, FHC temperature controller, Tono-pen Vet Avia, Millar, MPVS Ultra
Single segment pressure volume system, Arcturus Microdissection device.
CHRISTINE E. LYNN COLLEGE OF NURSING
The Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing is recognized nationally and internationally for its
innovative approaches to nursing research, scholarship, and education within a caring
philosophy. The College creates a context for learning that respects and celebrates the
interconnectedness of people and their environments, and prepares nurses to deliver
exemplary interprofessional health care in a multi-cultural society, including urban and rural
under-served areas. The College offers accredited bachelors, masters and doctoral programs of
study. Fully online and flexible course delivery formats for distant students are available for
selected programs. Students have the opportunity to study the discipline and profession of
nursing from a caring-based perspective, with faculty who are passionate about nursing.
Courses throughout the curriculum are centered in the study of nursing as nurturing the
wholeness of persons and environment through caring. The philosophy of Caring and caring
principles inform the curriculum, scholarship and research, and practice.
The College’s Office of Nursing Research and Scholarship (ONRS), headed by the
Associate Dean for Nursing Research and Scholarship and staffed by a biostatistician and two
Research Coordinators, is committed to strengthening the College’s research services,
environment, and enhancing its productivity. Florida Atlantic University nurse researchers,
supported by grants from federal and private foundations, are addressing some of the most
challenging issues facing the caring and health care needs of our community, society and in
nursing practice. The Office of Nursing Research and Scholarship supports the College’s
philosophy of caring that guides our mission with intent of building nursing knowledge in caring
and that helps contribute in building the next generation of nurse researchers and scholars. The
ONRS supports innovative research and scholarship conducted of the faculty, students and staff
that enhances the field of nursing and that improves quality of life and well-being. Services
include methodological and clinical research consultation. The Office is a repository for
information on internal and external funding sources/resources, including funding opportunity
announcements, guidelines, and forms. FAU is ranked by the Carnegie Foundation as a High
Research Activity Institution. The ONRS works closely with the FAU Division of Research and
Office of Sponsored Programs in preparation for grant application submissions (pre-award) and
in post-award grant administration.
Centers and institutes within the college provide access to Caring resources such as a unique
museum exhibit space that also houses an Archive of Caring dedicated to collecting Caring
artifacts and papers. The College addresses both the diversity of its service area and the need
to respond to emerging challenges in health care by preparing nurses to deliver exemplary
health care within a multicultural society through scholarly activities and research that advance
knowledge of the discipline; to respond to the health care needs of individuals, families, and
communities in urban and rural underserved areas; and to critically analyze and creatively
respond to emerging health care challenges, while advancing the understanding of caring as
unique in nursing. The College has a long history of responding to the needs of underserved
populations in urban and rural areas and includes international outreach. Specifically, the
college is home to two vibrant nurse-managed centers: 1) the FAU Community Health Center
(CHC) located in West Gate, West Palm Beach, that provides primary care, mental health, and
diabetic education services to more than 3500 patients annually; and 2) the Louis and Anne
Green Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing Memory and Wellness Center (MWC), located on
the Boca Raton campus. This unique center, with over 25,000 sq. feet of service area provides
early cognitive evaluation including neuropsychological and psychosocial assessments;
caregiver support; driving evaluations; and a thriving Day Center program that serves between
40-80 clients per day, providing a range of therapeutic activities for those with early cognitive
impairment. Additionally, the college has various other faculty practices under individual
contracts for services that include advanced nursing practice at the Karen Slattery Educational
Research Center, a pre-school on the Boca Raton campus. The clinical practice arm of the
college participates in the Clinical Practice Organization of the university and is led by an
Associate Dean for Practice and Community Engagement. These provide unique opportunities
in support of the research mission and research activities of its College faculty and students.
CHARLES E. SCHMIDT COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
The Charles E. Schmidt College of Science awards degrees in six departments—Biological
Sciences, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Geosciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physics and
Psychology — as well as in an Environmental Studies Program. Several college faculty
members also hold joint appointments with six research centers based in the university. The
College consistently ranks as among the highest recipients of research funding at Florida
Atlantic University (almost $6 million in FY 2014). Particular research strengths lie in the fields of
environmental science, cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, and global networks security.
These, and other, research areas build upon FAU’s South Florida location, with proximity to a
variety of marine ecosystems, the Florida Everglades and other major research institutes based
nearby.
Research focus areas in the department of Biological Sciences include organismal biology,
environmental science/conservation biology, neuroscience, cell biology and marine science.
Research undertaken in these areas reflects the unique nature of the South Florida region. For
example, several investigators working in environmental science/conservation biology have
focused on the Florida Everglades, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States.
Marine biologists in the department are also engaged in analyzing and researching the diverse
types of marine ecosystems that characterize the South Florida region—from estuarine to
coastal to blue water, as well as the rich variety of tropical and subtropical fauna and flora in the
area. Investigators working in the field of neuroscience and cell biology work closely with
researchers at neighboring research institutes, such as The Scripps Research Institute Florida
and the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. These FAU researchers investigate
areas such as the cellular basis of neurological diseases, the molecular aspects of synapse
formation, the neurobiology of learning and memory, the biology of cancer, development and
aging.
Research areas in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry include organic chemistry,
chemical biology, biophysical chemistry, materials science and biochemistry. The investigations
conducted in these areas have potential implications for a wide range of challenging scientific
issues, including human health. Several researchers in the department are currently engaged in
studying the development of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers in the
department are also engaged in drug discovery, such as analyzing marine natural products for
their use in potential drug applications. Investigators working in this focus area can utilize a drug
discovery core facility maintained by the department. Research collaborations have also been
established with FAU’s Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (CMBB). A primary
focus of the CMBB is to create a strong base in molecular biology, functional genomics and
related fields. Both the past and present director of the CMBB are fellows of the National
Academy of Inventors.
The three main focus areas of the department of Geosciences are earth systems science,
human-environmental systems, and geo-information science. Within these areas, researchers
have acquired particular expertise in the fields of hydrogeology, paleontology and paleoenvironments, human-environmental modeling, and urban and regional development. Three
labs that function within the department offer state-of-the-art equipment – the Biogeography
Research Lab, Environmental Geophysics Lab and the Water Analysis Lab. The Environmental
Geophysics Lab offers equipment with an emphasis in electromagnetic methods such as ground
penetration radar and terrain conductivity, and the Water Analysis Lab maintains
instrumentation to perform nutrient, alkalinity, and elemental analyses, as well as analyses for
stable isotopes of water. Instrumentation is also available to investigators through the Center for
Geographic Information Analysis and Modeling (GIS), which supports research in the areas of
GIS, remote sensing, hydrological modeling, and other areas. Faculty members in the
department also work closely with the Florida Center for Environmental Studies (CES), which
aims to improve Florida’s sustainability through research, education and outreach on ecology,
climate change and society.
Faculty areas of expertise in the department of Mathematical Sciences include algebra,
analysis (such as harmonic analysis), combinatorics and geometry, dynamical systems and
control theory, foundations of mathematics, mathematical biology, probability and statistics, and
mathematical education. In addition, a significant area of research in the department that has
national and international implications is cryptology and information security. Funding for
cryptology has been secured from agencies such as the Air Force Research Laboratory and
NATO, and FAU is recognized as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information
Assurance/Cyber Defense Research (CAE-R) for academic years 2014-2019. At FAU, the
Center for Cryptology and Information Security (CCIS) undertakes multidisciplinary, original and
cutting-edge research in cryptology and information security.
Researchers in the Physics department engage in research in four main areas: spacetime,
complex systems, biomedical and materials physics, and physics education. Faculty members
in the FAU Spacetime Physics Group (FAUST) pursue analyses in the fields of astrophysics and
general relativity. A number of faculty members in the department also hold appointments in the
Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, which seeks to understand the principles and
mechanisms that underlie complex behavior. Another important center associated with the
department is the Center for Biomedical and Materials Physics (CBAMP), which has evolved
over time and most recently has incorporated an increasing interest in the study of medical
physics. Faculty members in the department also actively engage in analyzing ways in which to
improve the teaching and learning of physics.
Research in the department of Psychology focuses on four core areas: cognitive psychology,
developmental psychology, behavioral neuroscience/neuropsychology and social/personality
psychology. Particular areas of expertise lie in the fields of early language development and
neuroscience. The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences brings together
researchers in multiple disciplines, with members from the department of Psychology being
well-represented. A goal of the Center is to blend emerging concepts from complex dynamical
systems with experimental techniques at the molecular, cellular, behavioral and cognitive levels
in brain science. The center features state-of-the-art research facilities with access to extensive
imaging facilities (EEG & fMRI).
The Environmental Science Program (ES) conducts research that is of particular importance
to South Florida, focusing on human-caused environmental problems, mostly in aquatic
systems. The ES program is multidisciplinary in nature, combining researchers from a number
of different departments and colleges. A major focus of the ES program is the Greater
Everglades Research Initiative (GERI), which takes into account the Everglades restoration
effort and the human-wetland interface. The program also has access to several research and
educational facilities, including a new state-of-the-art green house on the FAU Davie campus,
as well as facilities located at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Gumbo Limbo
Environmental Complex, Riverwoods Field Laboratory and the Pine Jog Environmental
Education Center.
The Florida Center for Environmental Studies (CES) advances trans-disciplinary research,
education, and outreach on ecology, climate and society. The main office is located on FAU’s
Davie campus, but the Center has collaborative links across all FAU campuses and most
colleges, as well as with other universities and private and public sector stakeholders and
organizations. CES’ efforts focus on understanding and adapting to the causes and
consequences of changes in wildlife and water quality in the Everglades, and of sea-level rise in
South Florida’s growing urban areas. The Center’s sponsored research and education activities
are designed to support scientific inquiry on cutting-edge, solutions-oriented research questions
that help to advance the sustainability of Florida’s natural and built environments.
Researchers can also take advantage of Core Instrumentation offered by the College of
Science in order to conduct and advance their research. The College’s core instruments include
cluster computers, a fluorescent-activated cell sorter, mass spectrometer, astronomical
telescope, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, high-performance liquid chromatography,
peptide synthesizer, real time PCR and confocal imaging microscopes.
HARBOR BRANCH OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute is a research community founded in 1971 that
includes approximately 150 marine scientists, engineers, educators, students and other
professionals. Its primary areas of study are Aquaculture & Stock Enhancement, Marine
Biomedical & Biotechnology Research, Marine Ecosystem Health, Marine Mammal Research
and Conservation, Ocean Dynamics & Modeling, Ocean Engineering & Technology and
Population Biology & Behavioral Ecology. Efforts in these areas are in service of four research
themes:
Ocean Exploration – With a rich legacy of ocean exploration technology development, Harbor
Branch focuses on continental shelf frontiers and deep water coral reefs to advance the search
for new medical treatments, discovery and protection of vital fisheries spawning grounds and
deeper understanding of our changing planet. The institute is home to the NOAA Cooperative
Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research & Technology, a consortium of institutions dedicated
to exploring and studying the nation’s ocean frontiers and driving technological innovation
toward these goals.
Understanding Marine Ecosystem Function – Harbor Branch researchers strive to
understand the biogeochemical processes and species interactions at multiple trophic levels
that together define the function of marine ecosystems, and thereby generate information to
help manage and conserve these resources. Areas of focus include corals, estuarine ecology,
fisheries ecology, hydrodynamics, harmful algal blooms, marine botany, marine mammals and
phytoplankton, as well as the effects of human activities on these systems.
Wise Use of Marine Resources – Food, energy and medicines are among the many resources
the oceans provide, and Harbor Branch works to maximize the human benefit of such products
while minimizing the environmental consequences of providing them. Examples include
discovery of marine-derived natural products that are useful in the treatment and study of
disease, and development of sustainable methods to grow various marine species for food,
stock enhancement and restoration.
Innovative Technology Development – Critical to all research themes is development of
technologies and methods for observing, quantifying, sampling, cultivating and conserving the
ocean’s diverse organisms and habitats. Areas of focus include numerical modeling of marine
system physical, chemical and biological processes to reveal their effects on ecosystem
functions and coastal environments, and innovation in underwater optical sensing, sensor
development, at-sea testing of networks of sensors and robotic platforms, hydrocarbon
detection and characterization, and advanced data and image processing.
Research Facilities. FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute has 34 buildings dedicated to
marine science and technology research and education, and is located on 144 acres along the
highly biodiverse Indian River Lagoon estuary in Fort Pierce, Florida. Major research facilities
include a 30-acre aquaculture park, marine mammal critical care center and necropsy
laboratory, and laboratories dedicated to natural products chemistry, cancer cell biology,
bacteriology, molecular ecology, ancient DNA, coral health, harmful algal blooms, fisheries
ecology, marine botany, aquaculture nutrition, aquatic animal health, dolphin photo
identification, sensor development, undersea optics, and autonomous underwater and surface
vehicles. Harbor Branch also has an array of small boats for field work, a machine shop, and
facilities for conducting fabrication, robotics, hydraulics and pressure-testing work.