NORTHAMPTON — New and improved technology is on its way to Smith College thanks to a $555,232 state Workforce Development Capital Grant that seeks to prepare more students for careers in the life sciences and other STEM fields.

The college’s Clark Science Center will use this funding to acquire new Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) equipment, allowing students to gain hands-on experience with complex technology before stepping into their first post-graduate positions.

Smith College already has NMR technology in its grasp, but Kate Queeney, faculty director of the Clark Science Center, says that the new machinery will serve as an upgrade, allowing more students and researchers to ask more complex questions using the technology’s increased sensitivity. NMR is often used to research the composition, quality, molecular interactions, and other properties of samples in lab settings across many scientific disciplines.

“MRI uses the same technology, but NMR is used for molecules, not people’s body parts,” said Queeney. “As instruments get better and better, you can use them more for biomolecules, which makes them really important for life sciences.”

The Clark Science Center is Smith’s hub for all things STEM, and houses state-of-the-art equipment that students learn and experiment with on a near-daily basis. According to Queeney, over 200 students utilize the Center’s NMR technology every year, and it is also heavily utilized by the college’s life sciences researchers, including biologists and chemists.

“About 75% of the chemists in my department use this technique frequently,” said Queeney, who witnesses the constant use of the NMR equipment from her nearby office. “There’s always a steady stream of students in and out with samples.”

Science fields are popular realms of study at Smith College, which encourages the school to keep up with the latest technology so students are fully prepared with the technical skills to excel in their future careers. According to Carolyn McDaniel, Smith’s director of media relations, nearly 50% of degrees awarded by the school each year are in the STEM sciences, and about half of all STEM majors at Smith conduct undergraduate research alongside professors.

Many preliminary courses for undergraduates involve using complex technology that they are likely to see in the labs where they’ll work someday.

“They get to see what cutting-edge science looks like physically,” said Queeney. “Smith has a really rich history of doing this — producing women scientists.”

Smith is receiving this grant funding as part of more than $13 million announced this month by the Healey administration to support life sciences workforce development and STEM education initiatives. These grants were awarded to support STEM curricula at 91 schools and expand training programs at 20 institutions.

At Smith, the grant funding is estimated to serve 266 students in the coming school year.

Queeney said that gaining this exciting new technology would not have been possible without the dedication of Cristina Suarez, the chemistry professor who applied for the grant and who’s research focuses on the application of solution NMR techniques in answering biochemical questions, as well as Patti Thornton and Lisa Stoffer in the Grants and Sponsored Research Office.

“Being awarded this grant of this size … it’s an exciting thing that’s been able to happen for us,” said Queeney.

McDaniel says that Smith College hopes to receive its new NMR equipment early in the spring semester, around February or March 2025.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.