Research Facilities

In addition to its science and neuroscience teaching laboratories, Skidmore maintains the research facilities described below to support collaborative student-faculty and faculty research.

For more information on the faculty members listed below and their research programs consult the page on Faculty.

Facilities include those from both the psychology and biology departments.

Research Laboratory Resources

Each faculty member has dedicated individualized research space for conducting professional research and engaging students in collaborative research during the academic year and summers. Both departments also have specialized animal care facilities supporting research by neuroscience program faculty.

Animal Care Facilities

The psychology and biology departments each house small functional animal care facilities for rodents. Each is approximately 700 square feet, with separate small photoperiod-controlled and ventilated rooms for housing animals, small animal surgery, clean storage, and cage-washing. Each can house approximately 100 rats or mice. A one-third-time animal caretaker position is dedicated to daily animal care and maintenance for the two facilities. The college operates an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, has an active New York State License for care and use of animals, and an active Public Health Service Animal Welfare Assurance.

Faculty/Student Research Facilities

David Domozych (Biology), the Director of the Skidmore College Microscopy Imaging Center (SMIC, maintains a scanning and transmission electron microscope facility, a light microscope laboratory equipped with a micromanipulator, two research phase contrast microscopes, and an imaging system for routine and fluorescent imaging analysis and the confocal facility.

Denise Evert in Psychology maintains a Cognitive Neuroscience laboratory that includes software and hardware for stimulus generation, presentation, and manipulation of visual images, including words, pictures, and faces. The facilities include Macintosh computers, display multiscan monitors, PsyScope response button boxes, and related software for divided-visual field studies to assess hemispheric specialization of function.

Hugh Foley in psychology maintains a perception laboratory which includes facilities for the presentation and manipulation of a wide range of visual phenomena including visual illusions. Facilities include Macintosh computers, scanners and related software for object and face perception research.

Mary Ann Foley in psychology maintains a cognitive psychology laboratory which includes facilities for stimulation generation and presentation, stereographic presentation via computer allowing for assessment of a variety of types of memory processes.

Corey Freeman-Gallant in biology maintains a DNA fingerprinting laboratory in conjunction with his avian field research.

Hassan Lopez directs a behavioral neuroscience laboratory which contains a rodent vivarium (for housing of rats and mice), behavioral testing equipment for the analysis of sexual behavior and motivation, a wet-lab for preparation and delivery of pharmacological agents, and a separate human testing room for experiments on sexual attraction and desire.

Roy Meyers in biology maintains a laboratory equipped for cardiovascular, respiratory and electrophysiological recording from small animals, including small mammals, frogs and turtles and A/D physiological recording equipment for EEG and psychophysiologial measurements.'

Anita Miller in psychology directs a psychophysiology teaching laboratory. James Long Company hardware and software implement protocols for studying emotional startle modulation and related phenomena in human participants.

Flip Phillips in psychology directs an eye, brain and vision laboratory which includes facilities for real-time 3-D stimulus generation, stereographic presentation, and a wide variety of response measurement systems.

Bernard Possidente maintains a laboratory equipped for automated monitoring and analysis of up to 64 rodents in running wheels under controlled photoperiods for circadianrhythm analysis, and has eight "Actiwatches" for automated recording of human activity.

Monica Raveret-Richter maintains a small aviary, and an animal behavior lab with resident bee colonies, Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches, and other insects, Anolis lizards, and a variety of tropical fish; she also conducts field research on insects and birds.

Biology research is also supported by two walk-in cold rooms, two minus 80 degree Centigrade freezers, and an ultracentrifuge.

Skidmore College Microscopy Imaging Center (SMIC)