The Yard Magazine

Open Space for Expansive Teaching: New undergraduate science laboratory named for esteemed FAS Dean Jeremy R. Knowles

Taking shape within the massive Northwest Science Building, the Jeremy R. Knowles Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory is a new kind of research lab. Named for the late chemist who led the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1991 to 2002, the lab is the latest manifestation of Harvard’s continuing transformation of its undergraduate science and engineering curriculum.

“Science is an active process, not just a series of facts that one learns in class,” says Richard Losick, Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Biology. “Hands-on activities help to convey the true nature of science to students.” Losick collaborated with Professor of the Practice of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Director of Life Sciences Education Robert Lue and Henry Ford II Professor of Human Evolution and Dean of Harvard College David Pilbeam on new courses that let undergraduates capture the thrills of venturing into the unknown.

Beyond the drama of discovery, students also get firsthand experience in the daily work of scientists, who must frame an answerable question, design an experiment that could answer it, and generate meaningful data. Too often, teaching labs simulate this experience, running students through predictable experiments. The 7,000-square-foot Knowles lab, with its movable benches and equipment, was designed to be open and flexible. Under the guidance of a working group drawn from the life sciences and physical sciences departments, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, students will use the space for a wide range of experiments. “Our existing teaching labs were built many years ago and were not designed to accommodate current best practices in science pedagogy,” Losick adds. “The Knowles space will be a jewel that can help fill these needs.”

The laboratory was named through a gift from C. Kevin Landry ’66. “I was a great admirer of Jeremy’s,” Landry says. “He was a great scientist, he was a great dean, a great teacher, a great person all around. Jeremy and I were both fans of undergraduate teaching, and this gift united his strong interests in that, and mine.” Knowles, who died just a few weeks after learning that the lab would be named in his honor, was deeply moved. Writing to Landry and Losick, Knowles praised the benefit to undergraduates through simultaneous teaching and research: “My passions are being fed.”

Related Links

“Site Seeing: What’s Up, What’s Down, and What’s Under Construction,” Harvard Magazine, May-June, 2008

“Construction Begins on Northwest Science Building,” Harvard Gazette, April 14, 2005

Northwest Science Building: FAS Construction website

Northwest Science Building: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill website