The Great Salt Lake is a vast, briny sump that teems with microbial life, bugs and migratory waterfowl, and emits the occasional "lake stink." Scientists say it offers unparalleled research and educational opportunities, in addition to its trove of mineral and aquatic resources.
    Westminster College biologists believe Utah's inland sea is underappreciated, undervalued and understudied. That's one reason the small liberal-arts school has launched the Great Salt Lake Institute.
    "It's something plastic and dynamic. I expect it to grow and change. It's all about partnerships," biology professor Bonnie Baxter said Thursday while announcing the new institute at the Salt Lake City college. "Our mission is a collaborative venture. Research progresses best when we work together, hold hands and talk to each other."
    Tapped to head the new institute, Baxter is a biochemist who studies the lake's unicellular creatures, particularly those that thrive in its harsh environments, rich in saline and ultraviolet radiation. Her gifts as a teacher earned her a recent Governor's Medal for Science and Technology.
    The Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development played a key role in establishing the institute by helping secure federal funding through the departments of Labor and Energy.
    "It promotes partnerships between professors and students and businesses in the life science
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industries," said state science adviser Tami Goetz. "It will be a pipeline of talent for highly skilled and well-compensated jobs."
    DOE money comes through a genomic mapping project intended to tap the energy-producing and petroleum-degrading potential of the lake's microbes, while the Labor grant is part of a $195 million federal program to promote work force innovation.
    Institute leaders plan to furnish a forum both for lake-dependent industries, such as artemia harvesters and salt, energy and magnesium extraction, as well as conservationists. It will also provide learning experiences for schoolchildren and rare research opportunities for undergraduates.
    The lake and surrounding wetlands serve as crucial resting and breeding grounds for 5 million birds, representing 250 species, such as grebes, pelicans, gulls and phalaropes.
    "The Great Salt Lake Institute will provide a heartland of resources and inspiration that will help extend the awareness and appreciation about this hemispherically important eco- system," said Lynn De Freitas of Friends of the Great Salt Lake.
    bmaffly@sltrib.com
   
   
    The launch of the Great Salt Lake Institute coincides with major events involving the lake, including the annual conference of the International Society of Salt Lake Research (Sunday through May 16), held at the University of Utah in conjunction with the Friends of the Great Salt Lake Issues Forum, and the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival (Thursday through May 19). These events feature presentations open to the public at the Post Theater on Fort Douglas east of the U. campus.
    Highlights include a lecture about the Spiral Jetty by Westminster art historian Hikmet Loe, at 7:30 p.m. Monday; photographer Michael Slade discusses his "Great Salt Lake Photographic Survey," a multi-year portrait of the lake, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; and photographer Rosalie Winard presents images of wetlands birds, at noon May 16. See www.greatsaltlakebirdfest
    .com for information about field trips.