The Iowa State Chemistry Department’s undergraduate teaching laboratories will be receiving a face lift, thanks to $575,000 in grants awarded by two private foundations.

The Kresge Foundation in Troy, Mich., is donating $200,000, and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust in Muscatine is giving the department $375,000.

“Our chemistry department is engaged in a remarkable, long-term project that fundamentally redesigns how faculty teach and students learn undergraduate chemistry,” said ISU President Martin Jischke. “It’s an exciting initiative that extends beyond ISU to other universities, colleges and community colleges throughout Iowa. We are pleased that the grant proposals have been endorsed by these two prestigious foundations.”

George Kraus, chemistry department chairman, said the grants will be instrumental in the renovation and upkeep of the six undergraduate chemistry teaching labs.

“ISU’s chemistry department teaches the 5,000 undergraduate students each year,” Kraus said. “These two grants are especially significant because they enable us to redesign and equip our undergraduate laboratories to provide effective and enjoyable lab courses.”

The Kresge grant is a part of the Kresge Foundation’s Science Initiative, a program that awards challenge grants to upgrade and endow scientific instrumentation. The foundation is one of the country’s largest independent private foundations.

The chemistry department plans to use the funds to purchase equipment for analytical and physical laboratories. The grant is the second science initiative grant given to ISU since the program began in 1988.

The grant includes a $100,000 challenge component which requires that the department raise an additional $450,000 in gifts from alumni and other sources for the creation of an equipment endowment.

Scientific instruments such as spectrometers and chromatography equipment will be purchased with $150,000 of the Roy J. Carver fund to enable students to explore modern chemical concepts. The remaining $225,000 must be matched by ISU, resulting in a total renovation and equipment budget of $600,000 for the six labs.

Phyllis Peters, public relations director for the ISU Foundation, said Kay Kirkman, director of development for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, put together the grant proposals for the foundation.

“The Kresge Foundation expressed a high amount of interest in our undergraduate teaching labs,” Peters said. “With the thousands of students in the program, these grants will make a significant impact in the chemistry department.”