Board of Trustees Approves Science and Engineering Complex Construction

The GW Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to construct a new $275 million Science and Engineering complex on the Foggy Bottom campus.  The decision to build the controversial 8-story, 400,000 sq. ft. building brings to a close a 4-year planning process that often raised questions about the identity of the University, which has traditionally been know for its International Relations, Political Science, and International Business programs.

W. Russell Ramsey, Chairman of the Board of trustees, recognized that the construction of the complex is part of a transformation for the university into a primary hub of research in the nation's capital.  University President Steven Knapp also applauded the decision, describing the expansion of the University's science and engineering programs as a "milestone in the step to becoming a world-class research university."

Dinosaur discovered by GW researchers

After ten years of investigation, GW researchers have discovered previously unknown stages in a dinosaur’s evolutionary development and extended its fossil record back another 63 million years. The new fossil animal exhibits characteristics associated with both dinosaurs and birds.

GWU doctoral candidate Jonah Choiniere named the specimen Haplocheirus soller, which translates to “simple, skillful hand.” Similar to birds, the Haplocheirus soller dinosaur had three toes, a birdlike keel-shaped chest and a long beak, but it had small teeth, like a dinosaur.

Choiniere spent six months traveling to museums in Utah, New York, England, Spain, and Mongolia in addition to traveling to China six times for research and expeditions.

The research was funded by the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences, the Chinese National Science Foundation and the George Washington University.