So far wouldn’t qualify for anything other than a dusting in Ann Arbor where loyal readers know I spent my graduate school years. And yet, the Federal Government is shut down for a snow day…hope, but doubt it saves them some much needed money.

In the meantime, we need to raise about $20M for the next wing of the Krasnow Institute. Phase III will house research centers, classrooms, student services and a state-of-the-art auditorium. Nicknamed “The Beacon” by the architects, the design leads the eye towards the Great Room and Laboratory-wing of the Krasnow Institute.

One of my favorite aspects of Phase III is that it will bring all of our faculty, postdocs and student trainees under one roof–where the famous advantages of Bell Labs will come into play: proximity breeding creative productivity….

In this rendering, you can see the home of three of our research centers, facing across the terrace towards the existing Great Room (right of the image). Beyond the Great Room are the existing laboratories of the Institute along with core support facilities. The overarching goal here is to bring together theorists and experimentalists from disciplines spanning the Krasnow scientific program –mathematics, physics, computational sciences, neurobiology, cognitive psychology, experimental economics…and I could go on. But there is another crucial piece to the pie: the ability to embed Mason students directly into this rarified environment of advanced studies into the nature of cognition…students as scholars, indeed.