Sure, discoveries take place in the lab. But the seeds for scientific advances are also sown when researchers leave their laboratories.
Penn State University is creating more opportunities for scientists to interact in its newest building, the Millennium Science Complex. About 300 researchers from the university’s Materials Research Institute and Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences will call the building home after they move in this fall. These institutes include faculty from fields such as biology, ecology, physics, chemistry and bioengineering.
University spokesman Geoff Rushton says the building was designed to encourage those from different disciplines to collaborate. “You may have an engineering researcher who needs to work with a medical researcher,” Rushton says. “Discoveries will come out of people coming together in the same space.”
Besides that, the complex was designed to accommodate the precise conditions that labs require. Since some equipment can’t function if exposed to the slightest vibrations, thick concrete ensures that these spaces won’t be disturbed. Clean rooms are separated from the rest of the building in order to prevent contamination from particles in the air.
Source: Geoff Rushton, Penn State University
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen