Rensselaer on the Move

Developing the Proctor’s Theatre Building
Rensselaer announced the purchase of the historic Proctor’s Theatre building in downtown Troy. The university plans to develop the building into a high-end hotel that will provide economic and community benefits to the city of Troy and to the surrounding area. Constructed in 1914, Proctor’s Theatre began as a “high-class vaudeville” theater and eventually started showing movies. In its heyday, Proctor’s Theatre showcased such stars as Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Jimmy Durante. Proctor’s closed in 1977.

Architecture Launches Ph.D. Program
The School of Architecture has established a new doctoral program in architectural sciences. The new degree, which will be implemented this fall, will allow advanced work in all areas of graduate study in architecture including lighting, acoustics, informatics, computation and design, building conservation, and energy-efficient or “green” architectural systems. Interdisciplinary in nature, the Ph.D. is open to candidates with master’s degrees in architecture, science, engineering, and the humanities.

New Inverse Problems Center
Rensselaer opened the Center for Inverse Problems where researchers from various disciplines will work together to establish models, create new mathematics to analyze the models, develop algorithms, and use scientific computing to provide generic solutions that apply to a wide range of diverse and critical problems, from detecting tumors in the human body to better understanding fault zones beneath the Earth’s surface. To kick off the opening Rensselaer hosted the Interdisciplinary Inverse Problems Conference in April with guest speakers from around the world.

Rensselaer to Create New Molecularium™ Show
Rensselaer has been awarded a $659,291 grant from the National Science Foundation to expand its Molecularium project and take it global. The animated program, designed to be projected on a dome planetarium theater, started out as a pilot project in late 2002 to spark children’s interest in atoms and molecules. Rensselaer will use the grant to produce two 20-minute multimedia shows that will engage K-3 students in the exploration of the states of matter — solid, liquid, and gas — and the inner workings of a living cell. The Molecularium project is part of the educational and outreach program of Rensselaer’s NSF-funded Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures.

Photo by Jim Caras/Record