Yale announced on Jan. 20 that it will invest over $500 million to ensure that its science and engineering programs remain among the world's very finest.
Yale will transform Science Hill by constructing four state-of-the-art buildings; dramatically upgrading laboratories and classrooms; and realigning its programs to create an "environmental campus" on the lower portion of Science Hill and a "molecular campus" on the upper half.
The plan for Science Hill results from the work of a faculty committee chaired by Deputy Provost Pierre Hohenberg which deliberated over the last two years. In addition to recommending the new buildings, the committee has put forth a thoughtful plan for the renovation of the other facilities on Science Hill that will be pursued as the building projects are completed. The Science and Engineering Initiative was enthusiastically endorsed by the Yale Corporation at its most recent meeting in December.
A fifth new building, for Yale's engineering programs, will be constructed on the corner of Prospect and Trumbull streets with the help of a $24 million gift from John Malone, a 1963 graduate of Yale's engineering program and a highly successful business leader. (See related story.)
This $500 million-plus investment -- the largest such effort in Yale's history -- comes on top of the University's already sizable annual allocations for its science and engineering programs, which help to keep them in the top rung of university programs across the globe.
"This ambitious plan for science and engineering is a crucial element in Yale's strategy to remain among the very small number of universities that are considered the finest in the world," President Richard C. Levin said. "It is difficult to imagine a 21st-century university of the highest quality that does not excel in science and technology, and thus excel we must."
Although Yale is well known internationally for its strength in the arts, humanities, social sciences and the professions, its excellence in science is less widely recognized. For example, only four other universities have more members of the National Academy of Sciences.
Levin expressed confidence that the investment in new and upgraded laboratories and classrooms will help Yale recruit faculty and students of the highest quality and keep the University at the forefront of advances in science and engineering.
Yale's announcement attracted international, national, regional and local news coverage, and stories appeared in print, on television and radio, and on the Internet. A lengthy story appeared prominently in all of the New York Times' national and international editions.
The benefits from Yale's investment for this region and state were heralded by Governor John Rowland, U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro and Mayor John DeStefano at a press conference in the Bass Building.
"We are blessed in Connecticut," Rowland said, "with some of the finest creative minds in the world."
"We led the industrial revolution 100 years ago," Rowland added. "We could make anything." Referring to a similar economic transformation to a "new economy" of high-technology industries and jobs, the governor said, "We can again lead that revolution over the next 100 years."
For Yale itself, the investments will improve the quality of science research and teaching facilities and improve contacts within and among departments. They will also make Science Hill a more vibrant social and intellectual center.
As detailed below, the plans for five additional buildings include new facilities for chemical, biological and environmental research as well as a building for engineering and another for the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Environmental Sciences Facility
Already under construction on Science Hill is an Environmental Sciences Facility (ESF), adjacent to the Peabody Museum of Natural History. The facility will house interdisciplinary research in the earth and environmental sciences, as well as a climate-controlled area for the storage and preservation of the most fragile specimens in the Peabody's collection.
The generosity of Edward P. Bass, a 1968 Yale College graduate, is helping to make this facility possible. Bass has contributed $25 million in the last decade to establish Yale's Institute for Biospheric Studies, endow professorships in environmental sciences and support construction of the new facilities.
Department of Chemistry
A new building will house experimental research activities now situated in Yale's Kline Chemistry Laboratory and Sterling Chemistry Laboratory.
This state-of-the-art facility will contain advanced laboratories for research in such aspects of modern chemical sciences as nuclear magnetic resonance, organometallic chemistry, and bio-organic chemistry, among others.
"One of the great strengths of Yale's chemistry program is the intimate connection between undergraduate education and cutting-edge research," said chemistry professor Kurt W. Zilm. "Maintaining the vibrancy that this especially brings to chemistry laboratory courses was a central goal of the planning process."
Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
A new building will house the department's research activities now located in Osborn Memorial Laboratories and Kline Biology Tower. A bridge will connect the new facility to the renovated Gibbs Research Laboratories.
"We are in the midst of a scientific revolution in understanding living organisms," said Professor Michael Snyder, the department chair. "The rapid progress of technology has accelerated the pace at which we learn about ourselves and translate that knowledge into medical advances. This is unprecedented in the biological sciences and parallels the breakthroughs in physics at the beginning of the last century. The new buildings will provide state-of-the-art facilities, which will keep Yale scientists and students at the forefront of science."
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
A new building, which will be designed and constructed with environmental concerns in mind, will provide space for teaching and research in environmental science, policy and management.
The new building will stand at the front of the hillside known as Sachem's Wood, of which the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies will serve as the custodian.
Faculty of Engineering
Malone's $24 million gift will provide the funds needed to move directly to the design and construction of this new facility, which will house portions of Yale's revitalized programs in engineering and applied science.
The gift comes against the backdrop of a renaissance in Yale's programs in engineering and applied science under the leadership of Engineering Dean D. Allan Bromley, one of Yale's most distinguished scientists and former science advisor to President Bush.
Yale has made several outstanding recent appointments in engineering, and it also announced in November a new initiative to expand biomedical engineering.
Upgraded laboratories and classrooms
Along with the five new buildings, the plan calls for thorough renovations and upgrades of the University's Kline Biology Tower, Josiah Willard Gibbs Research Laboratories, Sterling Chemistry Laboratories, Osborn Memorial Laboratories, Kline Chemistry Laboratory and Sloane Physics Laboratory.
Yale also will build two new lecture halls for introductory science courses in a common facility on Central Campus.
"Environmental Campus" and "Molecular Campus"
When the new buildings and renovations are completed, the southern side of Science Hill will become an "environmental campus" housing the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the Peabody Museum, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Department of Geology and Geophysics. Physics and Astronomy together will occupy laboratories in Kline Tower, which will continue to house the science library, and in the adjacent Sloane Laboratory. From the northwest corner of Science Hill to the eastern side, a "molecular campus" will house in connected buildings the Departments of Chemistry, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, as well as common areas for instructional labs, lecture halls, dining and informal meeting space.
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