The College has decided to sell the Minary Conference Center, a waterfront property on Squam Lake in Holderness, N.H., according to Paul Olsen, Dartmouth's director of real estate. The decision was made in order to "better concentrate [the College's] resources," Olsen said in an interview with The Dartmouth. The center which was originally donated to the College in 1970 by founder of CBS Broadcasting William Paley has since been used by various members of the Dartmouth community. The Minary Center is occupied by faculty members, the Board of Trustees and the campus administration for about 11 or 12 percent of the year and occupied by other groups for around 15 percent of the year, Olsen said. According to Olsen, the "nice" but not "essential" center was not profitable. The Minary Center is currently on the market for $9 million and the College has held several showings of the property thus far. Olsen said he believes that there is still a market for the property despite the economic downturn and that he expects an individual to purchase the center. The reaction on campus to the decision to sell the Minary Center has generally been understanding, Olsen said.
Thayer School of Engineering professors Charles Sullivan and Christopher Levey received a $1 million grant from the Department of Energy to support their research on creating miniature power electronics that control and convert energy. The professors will focus on the magnetic components of inductors and transformers as they seek smaller and cheaper ways to convert from one form of power to another, Sullivan said. Their work will have a variety of applications, including the improvement of LED lights and cells that convert solar energy into power. Cheaper and less bulky photovoltaic energy systems will allow engineers to implement renewable energy in a wider variety of places, Sullivan said. The DOE grant comes from a $92 million fund that has been distributed to 43 different projects, all of which aim to improve energy use and consumption in the United States. The research carried out by Sullivan and Levey will serve as part of a larger project to improve power electronics' efficiency spearheaded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
