By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tom Bresiger, 19, (left) David Groneck, 19, (center) and Nick Taylor, 20, work on a lab project testing bacteria Thursday at Northern Kentucky University's Natural Science Center. The Cincinnati Enquirer/STEVEN M. HERPPICH

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS - Less than two years after Northern Kentucky University opened its state-of-the-art science center, school officials say it has become a major recruiting tool for the institution.

Since the $38 million Natural Science Center was dedicated in fall 2002, officials say they've seen a surge in the number of students taking introductory science courses, participating in research and choosing to go on to graduate school.

Officials have used the building and its high-tech equipment to attract students. But it has also made the school more competitive in attracting scientists, some of whom have accepted positions at NKU, in part, because of the facility.

In the next five years, NKU expects to attract even better qualified students and lure larger research grants.

President James Votruba will recognize U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell today on campus for his efforts in securing $1.7 million in federal funds to equip a digital science center. It was included in the building's construction, but has not yet been completed.

The digital science center space, is being used as a classroom. When it's finished, however, probably in spring of 2005, the domed ceiling will transform into an educational IMAX of sorts. Students will be able to see the sky over Australia and watch the human heart from the perspective of a drop of blood.

They will study intricacies of plant parts, the solar system and the human brain.

But that's only one piece of the 172,000-square-foot facility. It also includes:

• Nine smart classrooms with Internet connections/

• 48 research and instructional labs, including an optics lab, a high-energy cosmic rays lab, and an X-ray research lab.

Most of the $6 million in equipment housed in the center - including a $250,000 scanning electron microscope - was donated by local companies, foundations and an anonymous NKU alum.

For physics major Anthony DiBello, a 20-year-old from Covington, the new building was a welcome change from the crowded old science building. He and his fellow physics majors now have more room and their own computer lab.

For years, students were crammed into an outdated building dedicated in 1974 that was never meant for high-tech scientific instruction or research. Vibrations were so bad that some physics measurements couldn't be taken.

While other colleges and universities have expensive high-tech equipment, it's often used in research done by graduate students.

At NKU, the focus is on undergraduates. They not only get to see a scanning electron microscope, they get to use it and discover what's in the dust in a vacuum cleaner or study scatter marks from bullets for evidence, said Debra Pearce, interim chairwoman of biological sciences.

Pearce's department has developed a proposal for creating a forensics program at NKU and she hopes to hire a technician this year that could run tests for small companies or local police departments. Communication between scientists in different fields is helping to develop stronger students.

"Suddenly biologists are communicating with geologists, physicists and chemists, sharing personal moments but also ideas about research," she said. "This has fostered many cross-disciplinary research projects and grant proposals."

The combination of high-tech facilities and an undergraduate focus is what sold Keith Walters, a chemistry professor, on NKU in 2002. He came out of a post-doctoral appointment at Northwestern University and interviewed at undergraduate liberal arts schools in Washington, Hawaii and North Carolina. But he was swayed by a startup package at NKU that included $95,000 to buy lasers, lenses, computers and other equipment to set up a lab for his specialized research in photochemistry.

"I was looking for an institution that was focused on undergraduates, but being a scientist, a chemist, I have research interests and sometimes that's a Catch-22," he said. "It was clear that (the center) was going to be a top-notch facility unlike anything that a liberal arts institution - public or private - has in the country."

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com