Faculty envision a public science center like the California Academy of Science (CAS) at BFL. In this photo, CAS visitors explore the rainforest dome and its 100,000-gallon Amazon Flooded Forest tank. Photo © Tim Griffith. Courtesy: CAS.
Brackenridge Field Lab (BFL) should expand to become a new environmental science campus for The University of Texas at Austin, members of the university’s Faculty Council have proposed.
The council vision calls for an enhanced field lab that would include a world-class public science museum, new labs and classrooms, and new facilities for technology transfer in the biological sciences. Collections such as the Plant Resources Center and the Texas Natural History Collection would move to new facilities at BFL.
The council, chaired by biologist David Hillis, said that these collections and others could be used at BFL more effectively for research and education, and that this would also free up precious space on campus and at the Pickle campus.
The council’s plan was issued in response to a plan submitted by a consulting firm hired by the UT System Board of Regents to sketch out the redevelopment of the entire 350-acre Brackenridge Tract (BFL occupies 82 acres of the tract). The partners’ plan imagined the tract as a dense, urban development with new streets, parks, trails and housing, and either a reduced or relocated BFL.
In late December, the Regents announced that BFL will not be moved from the shores of Lady Bird Lake.
Hillis, the Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor in Natural Sciences, says their proposed environmental science campus would improve academic programs, help generate income through technology transfer, and strengthen the university’s outreach mission.
Keep current on the status of BFL at cns.utexas.edu/bfl.
Comments 1
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