The new building that now houses the University of Arizona Laboratory for Tree Ring Research was officially dedicated and opened yesterday afternoon. Today (Saturday March 2nd) the building will be open to the public from 10 am to 4 pm MST for those who want to see and tour the new facility. The building is just northeast of the Sixth Street parking garage, where parking will be free today.
The laboratory has been housed "temporarily" in the dark spaces under the west side of the football stadium. The lab was in these dank, dirty, leaky, and noisy spaces for only 75 years. So, this is a momentous occasion for all affiliated with the laboratory. Katie's new office is a tremendous breath of fresh air for her.
The building is named for a past Director of the Laboratory. It was made possible because of a donation of 9 million dollars from Agnese Haury, widow of the late Emil Haury. He was an archaeologist back when a new science, "dendrochronology", was developed by astronomer A.E. Douglass. Douglass wanted to correlate tree-ring growth to a long-running records of sunspots and climate. When Haury teamed with Douglass they were able to use tree rings to date the mysterious, abandoned ruins of the Anasazi and other ancient peoples of the Southwest. The laboratory continues today, using tree-ring data to study climate, weather, wild fires, water resources, and archaeology.
Thank you Agnese!
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