14 DAY TRIAL // Experts working in fundamental and applied physics research at the Rice University have just gotten a new place to conduct their investigations. The Brockman Hall for Physics, a state-of-the-art research facility, has just been dedicated on the university campus.
Representatives from Rice and the US Department of Commerce participated at the ceremony, which saw the commissioning of the four-story, 111,000-square-foot building for scientific use.
Construction efforts were partially supported by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), through a $11.1 million grant provided by stimulus funding received from the government.
NIST director Patrick Gallagher, who is also the US undersecretary of commerce for science and technology participated at the ceremony too, as did NASA astronaut and Rice alumna Shannon Walker and NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology director Robert Celotta.
“Brockman Hall enhances Rice's status as one of the nation's premier research universities, and it ensures that Rice will remain a leader in fundamental and applied physics research for years to come,” said David Leebron, the university's president.
“The impact of Brockman Hall goes beyond bricks and mortar. This facility forges new pathways between science and engineering, between theory and practice and between Rice's first and second centuries,” the official added at the dedication ceremony.
Faculty and associated staff began the lengthy process of moving their effects, equipment and experiments into the new facility in February, but they are not scheduled to finish until June.
Primarily, the building will be used by scientists with the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who will be conducting research in a wide variety of fields.
Some of these include atomic, molecular and optical physics, biophysics, condensed matter physics, nanoengineering and photonics, among others. Interestingly, the building that now supports all of these endeavors was built in just 33 months.
The Hall will finally bring together a group of experts that has until now worked in five separate building throughout the large Rice campus. Now, their proximity will allow them to collaborate more efficiently, officials at the university said.
Constructed on Rice's Science Quadrangle, the building has a very small carbon footprint, and is entirely suspended on pillars. This means that students will have access to the vast majority of the space that existed before its construction.
“This is a remarkable building in every sense, and it complements the excellent work of the physics community at Rice University,” said the dean of the Rice Wiess School of Natural Sciences, Dan Carson.
“The future for science is extremely bright, and Brockman Hall is a clear demonstration of Rice's commitment to scholarship and achievement in the physical sciences,” he concludes.
Video Description: Time-lapse video showing the construction of the Brockman Hall for Physics at the Rice University Video Credit: Rice University.