page_title: Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology / History
caption_attribution_description: IMG_4057
context_page_description: The Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology is a year-round ecology field station of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences located in Linesville and South Shenango Township on the shores Pymatuning Lake in Pennsylvania. The station contains research facilities and equipment, conducts undergraduate education and courses, and serves as center for conferences, symposia, and retreats. The Pyatuning Laboratory hosts researchers from the University of Pittsburgh as well as those from universities throughout the nation and world, which have included, among others, researchers form Duke University, the University of Virginia, the University of Georgia, the University of Miami. Likewise, course instructors at the lab come from the University of Pittsburgh, but also have included instructors from other institutions including Georgia Tech, the University of Connecticut, and the National Aviary. In addition, the University of Pittsburgh has instituted a collaborative program for study at the Pymatuning Lab with other area universities in which students that are enrolled through any of these institutions register, pay tuition, and receive credit at their home institutions.
context_section_description: The University of Pittsburgh established a biological field station at Presque Isle, Pennsylvania on the shores of Lake Erie in 1926. However, the creation of Presque Isle State Park crowded out the modest field station, and in 1949 the field station moved to Pymatuning State Park. The University of Pittsburgh obtained a lease from the state for a 13-acre (5.3 ha) wooded peninsula adjacent to the Pennsylvania State Fish Hatchery which became known as the Sanctuary Lake Site. The first building was constructed on this site in 1952. Over time more research buildings were erected on the site in order to satisfy the educational and research needs of the University of Pittsburgh and visiting faculty and students from other colleges and universities in Western Pennsylvania.
  By 1965, the university had outgrown the Sanctuary Lake Site facilities and it obtained a second lease from the Pymatuning State Park for a dedicated housing site.
  As the Housing Site expanded and developed, the Sanctuary Lake Site was dedicated to maintaining modern research and teaching facilities. Today, this site has modern facilities for housing instructors, researchers, and students as well as a Dining Hall, Kitchen, and Recreation Hall.
  Major renovations and building projects were undertaken in the mid-1990s that resulted in a 30% increase in space and included the installation of numerous pieces of equipment and lab renovations. Among the projects was a new $81,000 1,700 square feet (160 m²) administration building with a library and a $102,000 faculty housing unit that was completed in 1997.  Since 2000, the University of Pittsburgh has renovated and expanded the facilities, as well as adding a significant increase in land. This has included the acquisition of three research properties, Wallace Woods, Beagle Road, and the Livingston Farm, that total 360 acres (150 ha). In addition, the university has constructed five additional labs.  In addition, the lab has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to construct a new $1.2 million, 3,600-square-foot (330 m²) laboratory building to be completed in 2014 that will contain three new research labs including new animal care space for bird researches and sterile lab space for molecular and microbial biology. This facility will also be open to K-12 public school students when the universities are on hiatus.
caption: Canoeing near the lab
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