Calvin College's nearly complete life sciences center will be named after a former teacher at the school. 

Today the Calvin College Board of Trustees approved the recommendations of school president Dr. Gaylen J. Byker and the Calvin Faculty Senate to name the $16 million facility the "John ‘Doc' De Vries Hall of Science." 

Calvin officials expect that the everyday parlance for the center will be simply De Vries Hall. Calvin hopes to move into De Vries Hall next month. 

Said Byker: "Dr. John De Vries was one of the early giants in the development of Calvin College and I was happy to recommend to the Board of Trustees that this new building be named in his memory and honor." 

De Vries, a 1929 graduate of Calvin, was a professor of chemistry at his alma mater from 1939 until his death in 1967, including 15 years as department chair. During that tenure he was known as an inspiring teacher and a tireless advocate for the role of the sciences in a liberal arts college curriculum. 

De Vries was legendary for his ability to get biology, chemistry and physics students into excellent graduate schools and medical schools. He was the first Calvin College alum to earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry; during his teaching tenure at Calvin more than 50 Calvin alumni went on to earn doctorates in Chemistry. 

The compatibility of the Christian faith and the study of the sciences was a central part of De Vries' teaching and research. His popular book, "Beyond the Atom," published by Eerdmans, led the discussion of this topic in the Christian Reformed Church and helped gain acceptance of the place of natural sciences in the college. 

Professor De Vries was also recognized for his contributions to the discipline of chemistry. He received the College Chemistry Teacher of the Year award from the Manufacturing Chemists' Association in 1960 (one of just six teachers in the U.S. so honored) and he twice served as a program director at the National Science Foundation. 

And De Vries was a prime mover behind the construction of the Science Building on Calvin's old Franklin Street campus and had an important role in equipping that building with advanced instrumentation and equipment. 
De Vries Hall is part of a $22 million project at Calvin to advance science education and research at the college and in West Michigan. The new building -- located just west of the existing Science Building – is approximately 70,000 square feet and is slated to house the school's Chemistry and Biology departments. It also will be home to a medical education and research facility -- a collaboration between Calvin, Spectrum Health and GRAMEC (Grand Rapids Area Medical Education Consortium). 

Calvin's new building is part of a larger national trend. Recently a Washington, D.C. education consultant noted that, by his estimate, science centers are being built, renovated or planned for on some 1,000 college campuses across the country. He pegged the cost of that effort at between $2 and $3 billion. 

The New York Times noted in a recent feature story that the U.S. has not seen a science building boom on American campuses like this since the late 1950s and early 60s, "when the nation was desperate to catch up with the Soviet Union in the race into space." 

The national building boom, like Calvin's project, has been fueled by the age of many of the existing science buildings – which were predominantly constructed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the aftermath of the Russian "Sputnik" space mission. That threw a gigantic cold war scare into the U.S. and propelled a building boom on college campuses – much of it funded by the U.S. government. 

In fact, Byker has researched the history of Calvin's Knollcrest campus – to which the school moved in the early 1960s – and has often commented on the Sputnik origins of Calvin's campus. Calvin's old Science Building was built with Sputnik money in the 1960s. 

Another factor at a national level -- which also is a factor at Calvin -- is the revolution in science teaching that has taken place in the decades since Sputnik. Disciplines are no longer so distinct with collaborations in sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology becoming common. An increased emphasis on research – even at the undergrad level – has changed the way science is taught nationally and at Calvin. 

For the last decade, Calvin has emphasized hands-on research as a primary teaching tool and the school is equipping labs in De Vries Hall with modern equipment and technology to facilitate such research. 

Supported by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in 1991 Calvin made major improvements to its science curriculum and boosted student participation in research projects. These changes give students the chance to use modern equipment and techniques for measurement and analysis. 

For example, biology students use a polymerase chain reaction thermocycler to copy their own cheek-cell DNA. Calvin's De Vries Hall will more than double the research space available for students and faculty.

Calvin's Science Division has experienced significant growth in recent years, adding several new departments and full four-year major programs in Computer Science, Biochemistry, Nursing, Geography and Environmental Studies, Geology and Engineering – which has just introduced Chemical Engineering as its fourth area of concentration to complement existing concentrations in Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. 

As a result the number of students majoring in the sciences -- approximately 1,000 -- now is almost 25 percent of the student body -- a 48% increase since 1975. Those majors often leave Calvin and head to graduate school. About 50 percent of Calvin's chemistry majors, for example, have gone on to graduate school Ph.D. programs over the last three years. 

And Calvin ranks in the top 20 nationwide among all four-year private colleges for number of graduates who go on to earn their Ph.D. in any discipline. 

Also, Calvin science faculty (all of whom have their Ph.D. degrees) are bringing in significant outside grants for equipment and research. Calvin ranks sixth in the nation among undergraduate institutions for National Science Foundation Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement grants. 

Calvin science faculty currently have over $2 million in multi-year research support from such organizations as the National Institutes of Health, Research Corporation and the National Science Foundation, as well as several industries. This research has been productive. In the past five years Calvin faculty have published almost 100 papers with more than 55 students included as co-authors. 

Calvin faculty collaborations with industry have flourished. Engineering professor Rich De Jong does vibration analysis for Ford, John Ubels studies artificial tears for Alcon and Curt Blankespoor tests dust mite eradication products for Bissell.