The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

 


Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

September 18, 2006

Tours, Demonstrations and Other Special Events to Mark Grand Opening and Dedication of UNM's CERIA Building
What happens when the sciences and media arts come together? Find out Oct. 8

  A gala event is planned for Sunday, Oct. 8, when the University of New Mexico hosts a grand opening and dedication for the Center for Environmental Research, Informatics and Art or CERIA building. The event, which will be held on the plaza west of the CERIA Building, begins at noon with refreshments. A building dedication and ribbon cutting, complete with dignitaries, begins at 1 p.m. Building tours, demonstrations and other events will follow from 1:30 to 4 p.m.

“The completion of the CERIA facility marks a milestone in the type of activities UNM is becoming internationally known for; large scale, long-term, interdisciplinary research and education,” said Terry Yates, Vice President for Research and Economic Development. “To my knowledge, UNM is the only research university to combine disciplines from fine arts with those from the sciences linked with a common technology. The result promises to be transformational."

The CERIA building, formerly the old Bookstore, is essentially a new state-of-the-art facility housing a variety of programs indicative of its name. Departments and offices located in the building include: The Museum of Southwestern Biology; the UNM Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) office; the National Science Foundation's (NSF) LTER Network Office; the Department of Media Arts; and the Art Technology Center/ARTS Lab.

The event is sponsored by each of the entities housed within the CERIA facility, as well as by the Biology Department, the colleges of Arts & Sciences and Fine Arts, and the VPR/ED office. For more information contact Cathy Osborn at (505) 277-1360 or via e-mail: cosborn@unm.edu .

 

Departments and Offices located in CERIA

Museum of Southwestern Biology
The Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) is a research and teaching facility, part of the Department of Biology, that houses collections of vertebrates, arthropods, plants and genomic materials from the American Southwest, Central and South America, and from throughout the world. The total collection amounts to nearly 4 million specimens and samples. The MSB consists of nine divisions, including the U.S. Geological Survey Biological Survey Collections and an inter-divisional program in biodiversity informatics (Natural Heritage New Mexico) .

Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research (LTER)
The Sevilleta LTER Project is located about 80 kilometers south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in and around the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). The refuge, which is managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, and its surroundings are positioned atthe intersection of several major biotic zones, and thus, provides excellent research opportunities. The overarching goal of our LTER Program is to understand how abiotic drivers and constraints affect dynamics and stability in arid land populations, communities and ecosystems .

LTER Network Office
With more than two dozen sites participating within the U.S., and a growing collaboration of more than 30 countries participating in the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, the NSF created the LTER Network Office in 1983 to support and coordinate network and site activities for the LTER.

Department of Media Arts
Located in the College of Fine Arts, the Department of Media Arts is dedicated to the study and practice of film and video as art. In the hope of understanding and enhancing the immense role of film and video in the modern world, the program offers the student a broad foundation in the purposes of art and culture.

Art Technology Center/ARTS Lab
The Arts Technology Center, within the College of Fine Arts, is dedicated to the support and advancement of experimental artistic research and production at UNM in the area of emerging technologies. Arts Technology Center (ATC) has been instrumental in the evolution of ARTS Lab, an innovative interdisciplinary center that forges dynamic relationships connecting Art, Science, Business and Technology.

###


The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.

www.unm.edu