U. gears up to reveal mystery behind IAST

The $37 million, state-of-the-art science building will provide laboratory space for three departments. To many University students, the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology building -- which was transformed this summer from a ditch to a large red building towering over Smith Walk -- is a complete mystery. But the $37 million building, which will provide state-of-the-art lab space for three departments, will have a major impact on a huge swath of the student body. Funded by a $27 million grant from the Air Force and a $10 million donation from University Board of Trustees Chairperson Roy Vagelos, the building will provide the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Medical School with improved lab space. The first floor of the new building will house a program -- the Institute for Medicine and Engineering -- that is itself a collaboration by those three schools. The rest of the building will be occupied by the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments. The IME -- some of whose faculty continue to work in other cities -- was supposed to be the first to move into the building, but its scheduled November 3 move-in was delayed because the building will not have been finished yet. As a result, while the building's grand opening will take place on November 10, it will not be occupied until December 1. "It's going to look good for the dedication but it won't be functional," said Michal Bental Roof, the IME's scientific development administrator. When it actually opens, the building's main strength will be the versatility of its labs, many professors said. The electrical supply, types of available gases and working station hoods can be easily changed to accommodate changing research needs. "It's a superb facility from a chemistry standpoint," Chemistry Department Vice Chairperson George Palladino said. "The layout of the labs as well as number and types of hoods, the opportunities for chemists to design the types of space they need, the modular aspect of the building are all superb." The facility's first-floor lab spaces are especially important to the program because they are designed to allow for research integrating engineering approaches to cell and molecular biology and biochemistry, Bental Roof said. The IME will relocate to the building from multiple temporary locations across campus, although it will continue to maintain space in Hayden Hall. The program's research in the new labs will focus on tissue culture, molecular biology, radio-labeling, and optical imaging. The opening of the building will also relieve overcrowding problems in the adjacent Chemistry Building. The extra room will allow for increased undergraduate and graduate research space, according to Senior Project Manager Pat Mulroy. The department intends to use the second and third floors of the building for biophysical and biological chemistry faculty and research, with the inorganic chemistry section of the department occupying the third floor, according to Palladino. Most of the physical chemistry section of the department will remain in the current Chemistry Building -- which is linked directly to the IAST building on several floors. The fourth floor of the building will remain vacant as the Chemistry Department searches for new organic chemistry faculty. Meanwhile, the Chemical Engineering Department is preparing to move catalysis and biocellular/biochemistry faculty and research into the top floor of the IAST, according to Undergraduate Chairperson John Vohs. The building also features an entire network of complex systems designed to remove dangerous fumes and provide ionized water, in addition to meeting basic heating, light and electrical needs, Mulroy said. The basement, which contains several layers of support systems built one on top of the other, took a full year to plan, he added.

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