News Archive: 2006
Unusually warm weather and dry conditions have contributed to significant progress on the addition to the building. The brick facade is in place, windows are being put in, and the pathway between the new and old structures is being constructed. The building should be fully enclosed shortly after the start of the new year.
On October 24, 2006, the Krasnow Institute was host to over 80 guests for a research open house. Attendees included members from the scientific community, George Mason community, and the Krasnow facility, among others.
The research open house provided outsiders the opportunity to get a glimpse of what members of the scientific team at Krasnow do and what their goals are as they continue to make scientific advances. Krasnow's state of the art research tools and technology, including the new 3T MRI, were the highlight of the night's reception. It truly was a "Magnetic Moment" in the life of the Krasnow Institute.
Meanwhile, rapid progress is being made on the structure of the Krasnow expansion. Framing for walls has been put up and dry-wall is being put into place as well. Within a matter of weeks, the building will be connected to the current structure.
As we begin to enter the fall and winter seasons, the expansion to the institute begins to take more shape with the addition of framework for the exterior walls. Exterior walls are expected to be in place in December.
With the semester underway and the MRI operational, the first test scans on the MRI equipment are examined and analyzed. Having conducted a recent upgrade of the equipment, the official opening of the MRI facility will take place at the end of October.
As the semester approaches, the expansion begins to take further shape. Steel beams and flooring begin to outline the true structure of Krasnow's new wing.
Krasnow is also pleased to announce that Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, Director of Krasnow's Center for Social Complexity, was awarded a Jefferson Science Fellowship by the Department of State for the 2006-2007 term.
The Jefferson Science Fellows program, under the Department of State, brings together the communities of academic science and engineering with United States foreign policy. During his one-year term, the fellow works for a bureau of the State Department. Dr. Cioffi specializes in conflict analysis and research methods, modeling , and simulation. His research has been funded by NSF, DARPA, and other agencies, including collaborative research with the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
It's a really busy summer at Krasnow. We're taking in three new principal investigators who will significantly expand our research profile. We're in the middle of the build-out of the expansion project that will take Krasnow to 33,000 square feet. And our new 3T MRI is now operational as the lead instrumentation in our
Neuroimaging Core.
The magnet arrives! On Monday, May 8, 2006, the long-awaited 3-telsa MRI machine arrived at Krasnow. Draped in a red tarp, it was the first piece of equipment to arrive. Next came the truck bearing the magnet's supporting machinery, and finally, the cranes to be used in placing the 8,000-pound machine into the building.
The drizzly weather did not deter the hoisting crew.
With the magnet in place, co-director of the Neuroscience Imaging Core of the Krasnow Institute (NICKI) Dr. Layne Kalbfleisch (right) reviews plans with the supervisor of the installation team.
For more information see the Mason Gazette article of 5-10-06.
March 8, 2006
On March 8, 2006, workers laid the eight-inch concrete slab required to bear the weight of the 8,000-pound MRI machine. Work is on schedule and the magnet arrival is expected in May.
January 11, 2006
On January 11, 2006, George Mason University and the Krasnow Insititute
celebrated the planned expansion to the Krasnow building and the
acquisition of a brain imager/scanner with a joint groundbreaking and
ribbon cutting event . Guests were spared the ravages of January weather
by a unique indoor ceremony featuring a wheel barrow for the ground
breaking. A ribbon cutting recognized the purchase of a Siemens
Magnetom Allegra 3 Tesla functional MRI scanner which will be installed
in space in the current building. Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA) attended
the event and following brief remarks lent a hand with shovel and
scissors. Along with Mason president Alan Merten, Krasnow advisory
board members Bill Nitze and Virginia Pomata, who played key roles in
helping the Institute reach these milestones, were on hand to celebrate.
The construction, to be underway by February, will add 12,500 square
feet of research space to the Krasnow building. The MRI scanner
acquisition makes GMU one of only two non-medical schools to own such
technology and provides GMU researchers access to a state-of-the-art
tool to use in cognitive and neuroscience investigations.
News Archive