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by Jill U. Adams
The 218,000-square-foot center, designed by Rensselaer architecture alumni P. Richard Rittelmann ’60 and Peter Bohlin ’58 (see Fall 2003 Rensselaer magazine) to mirror the Quad residence hall just down the street, intertwines structure and function. With up to 400 researchers working in 60 laboratories, a soaring atrium, and high-tech core equipment for specialized applications such as structural biology, analytical biochemistry, biocomputation, bioimaging, and proteomics, the center will allow for intense individual research, collaborative work, and formal and informal group interactions. This mixture of open space and leading-edge labs is at the heart of how Rensselaer defines its bioscience and biotechnology research enterprise.
The center brings together top researchers in the disciplines that form the foundation of biotechnology. At Rensselaer, these disciplines include biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science from the School of Science as well as chemical engineering, biomedical engineering and materials science from the School of Engineering. The new building brings diverse Rensselaer faculty under one roof to set the stage for collaborative research, not only to share tools and techniques, but to meld strategies. For these researchers, the key to true innovation and discovery will lie in the transformation of how questions are asked and how problems are approached.
Photo by Lonny Kalfus
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