Grant will upgrade Luther’s engineering science labs

Luther College has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust to purchase laboratory equipment similar to the instruments that engineering science students can expect to use in their future careers.

Luther College has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust to purchase laboratory equipment.

“Engineering science is a rapidly growing field at Luther, a field that merges a strong scientific and mathematical underpinning with experience in designing, building and testing devices,” said Jeff Wilkerson, interim provost and physics professor at Luther. “The equipment provided by this grant will enhance that merger of the theoretical and practical in exciting ways that benefit our students. We are deeply grateful for the Carver Trust’s generous support.”

The Luther College physics department recently began to offer an engineering science major because of student interest and to enhance its engineering education. The equipment purchased through the Carver Trust grant will enhance Luther’s curriculum and further the college’s commitment to this new and growing program.

“Our primary goal in this grant proposal was to strengthen the experience of our students in their engineering and physics-related laboratory work,” said Todd Pedlar, professor of physics and project director. “In addition to our introductory laboratory course in engineering, our electronics laboratory and our junior-level project design and implementation course will be key places where the new instruments and equipment will have the greatest impact.”

The new equipment is expected to be available for students in the fall 2025 semester.

“This grant enables Luther students to get their hands on a wider variety of engineering-related instrumentation and to thereby gain more hands-on experience with instruments like those they’ll see in their future work,” Pedlar said.

Luther faculty involved in the development of the grant proposal are Pedlar, Wilkerson, James Perez, associate professor of physics, and Molly Wilker, associate professor of chemistry. Jeanie Lovell, senior director of foundation and government relations, coordinated the proposal process.

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust has been a key philanthropic partner to Luther College for decades. This grant for engineering science is Luther’s tenth award from the Carver Trust. Other recent grants include $200,000 to support the creation of a comprehensive Nursing Simulation Center in 2021 and $200,000 to enhance curriculum and provide educational laboratory experiences for students majoring in neuroscience in 2018.

Based in Muscatine, the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust is one of the largest private philanthropic foundations in Iowa. The Carver Trust supports biomedical and scientific research, scholarships, and programs addressing the educational and recreational needs of youth. ​

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