Albright College Announces Grand Opening of New Science Center

Visit the Celebration of the Sciences Website

October 3, 2011

Reading, Pa.  – Albright College will celebrate the grand opening of its new Science Center on Friday, October 14, 2011.

The celebration includes a keynote address, The Value of Interdisciplinary, Research-based Instruction, by Robert J. Full, Ph.D., professor of integrative biology, University of California at Berkley.  The lecture is at 4:30 p.m. in Memorial Chapel and is free and open to the public.

The $34.5 million project included construction of 41,635 square feet of new state-of-the-art labs and classrooms and complete renovation of the historic 37,019-square-foot Merner-Pfeiffer Hall of Science, built in 1929 and expanded and renovated in 1965. The new four-story construction, Trustee Hall, wraps the west and north sides of the original building.

The new construction opened for classes in fall 2010, and the entire Science Center was opened for classes in fall 2011. Architects for the Science Center were Lord, Aeck and Sargent of Atlanta. Construction management services were provided by IMC Construction Company of Malvern, Pa. Project management was provided by The Stone House Group of Bethlehem, Pa.

“The project was designed to preserve the character, dignity and history of our grand old Hall of Science while adding to the ways that Albright shines when it comes to attracting and retaining top-notch faculty, staff and students,” said Lex O. McMillan, president of Albright College.

The new building facilitates Albright’s hallmark ability to allow students to combine fields of learning to create an individualized education, and to conduct faculty-student research. The building also fosters faculty collaboration and sharing of instrumentation among the sciences.

“Science at Albright has been one of the College’s pillars of excellence for a century and a half, and Albright has produced many more than 1,000 physicians, researchers and teachers in the sciences,” McMillan added. “Our new facility supports 21^st-century science and the interdisciplinary teaching and learning of science that is a way of life at Albright. We have outstanding faculty and instrumentation that exceeds many of our peers. Now we have the kind of facility that will be commensurate with the high quality of our faculty, our programs and the sophisticated equipment our students use.

“We are grateful for the magnificent support of our trustees and many, many donors for the Science Center, and for the campaign leadership of Sue Perrotty and Andy Maier for making this much-needed facility a reality,” McMillan said. Perrotty and Maier, Albright trustees, co-chaired Crossing Boundaries: The Campaign for Albright..

Albright offers the following science programs: biology, biotechnology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, optics, psychobiology, environmental science, environmental chemistry and environmental studies, and pre-professional programs in pre-med, pre-dentistry, and pre-veterinary medicine.

Keynote speaker Robert J. Full, Ph.D., is also director of the Poly-P.E.D.A.L. Laboratory, which studies the Performance, Energetics and Dynamics of Animal Locomotion (P.E.D.A.L.) in many-footed creatures. His internationally recognized research program in comparative physiology and biomechanics has shown how examining a diversity of animals leads to the discovery of general principles of locomotion. His research also has provided biological inspiration for the design of multi-legged robots and computer animations, and his interests extend from analyzing the pitching motion of a Hall of Fame pitcher to helping computer animators make children’s movies (Pixar/Disney Bug’s Life).

In anticipation of the Grand Opening of the new Science Center, Albright College has been featuring science-related events for the past year as part of its “Celebration of the Sciences.” Events such as lectures by prominent alumni and professionals in the sciences and exciting research presentations by faculty and students have been taking place since last fall and will continue through spring 2012. For more information and a calendar of events, visit www.albright.edu/sciencecelebration/ or call College Relations at 610-921-7526.

Founded in 1856, Albright College is a nationally ranked, private college with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. The College’s hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. More than half  of students have dual/individualized majors in as many as 200 different combinations annually. Albright enrolls about 1,660 undergraduates in traditional programs, another 800 adult students in accelerated degree programs, and 100 students in the master’s program in education. Albright College is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.