Celebrating the Sciences: The Old Made New

On Friday, Oct. 14, members of the Albright community—faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees, friends and neighbors—gathered around the old, well-worn steps of the Merner-Pfeiffer Hall of Science to celebrate the grand opening of our "new" Science Center. Our trustee Sue Perrotty '75 cut a bright red ribbon and we walked together through new doors into the promising future of the sciences at Albright College.

That promising future rests firmly on a proud past that dates back to the earliest days of the College. Since the founding of Union Seminary in 1856, science education has been an important part of our tradition and identity. Over the intervening years, the College has established a distinguished heritage of leadership and achievement in undergraduate science education.We have prided ourselves for more than a century and a half on our exceptional faculty, our state-of-the-art instrumentation, the outstanding quality of our teaching, and the many accomplishments of our students and graduates.

We have produced more than 1,000 physicians and innumerable other professionals and researchers who work in the sciences. They are making significant contributions in research, in health care, and in advancing the frontiers of science in areas such as cancer research, cystic fibrosis, facial reconstruction, nuclear medicine, vaccines, and educating other microbiologists in Third World countries about bacterial resistance. In fact, some of them were on campus this fall to speak as part of our Celebration of the Sciences.

The new Albright Science Center has been the dream of many, many people who have worked diligently over a long time to plan it, design it, redesign it and redesign it again, then raise the funds and secure the needed financing to pay for it and build it.

"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere." - Isaac Asimov

We are deeply grateful to the vision, the faith, and the personal generosity of our trustees under the leadership of Sal Cutrona '73, who chaired the Board from 2000 to 2007 and launched "Crossing Boundaries," the ambitious campaign that ultimately provided a large portion of the funding for the new Science Center. Early in the campaign, we were told that the College simply did not have the capacity to raise the kinds of funds required for such an ambitious project. The trustees simply responded that "it must be done, therefore it can be done." And they did it.

The impressive new facility has already begun to have the desired impact. The number of prospective students who see themselves as future physicians or research scientists is increasing. The excitement of our current students and faculty is palpable, and even students from other fields of study are enjoying the handsome new classrooms.

The completion of this ambitious project boosts our confidence that dreams do come true. We will continue to build and continue to seek visionary and generous alumni and friends to help us make these dreams become reality. To all who made it possible, we give heartfelt thanks. The lights at Albright are shining more brightly because of you.

Lex O. McMillan III, Ph.D.
President