More than one hundred years ago a small, retrofitted wooden storage building became the first chemistry laboratory at Hope College. In that primitive building, the faculty and students began the groundbreaking practice of pursuing the essential experimental nature of science by following the conviction that scientific learning is best achieved by doing science. Over the next century, the science faculty at Hope have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of excellence in science. One hundred years and five buildings later, the Hope College Natural and Applied Sciences Division encompasses eight departments with research a central focus of each program. In 2009, the college celebrates the hundred-year anniversary of the founding of separate chemistry and physics departments. With the vision and leadership of many great professors, excellence in science has become, in the words of Aristotle, “not an act, but a habit.” Through the research efforts of Hope’s science faculty, this book travels back in time to explore the roots of what is now a nationally recognized undergraduate science program, featuring a great many distinguished faculty and graduates who have contributed to the college’s distinctive program.
In looking back at each of the new science facilities from the 1893 retrofitting of science labs in Van Vleck Hall, to the state-of-the-art A. Paul Schaap Science Center, it becomes apparent that the college has made a continuing commitment to providing facilities equal to the outstanding teaching and scholarship that take place within them. The commitment and scholarship continues in the new century as Hope College leads the way nationally in undergraduate science research and education with distinction.
Non-Fiction (Published by In-Depth Editions under the Hope College Imprint)
ISBN:978-0-9655709-3-0 108 Pages - 200 photographs
