Brown to break ground for engineering as part of growth

A RENDERING OF THE NEW Brown University School of Engineering research building. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY/KIERENTIMBERLAKE
A RENDERING OF THE NEW Brown University School of Engineering research building. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY/KIERENTIMBERLAKE

PROVIDENCE – Brown University leaders will break ground Thursday evening on an $88 million School of Engineering building that will focus on nanoscience and bioengineering research.

The event is slated for 5:45 p.m. at Manning Walk, where the three-story, 80,000-square-foot structure will include facilities for nanoscale and biomedical engineering, plus two floors of lab space for cross-disciplinary research undertaken to address critical global challenges.

“For much of the last century,” said Engineering Dean Larry Larson, “engineering has focused on the macroscale – rockets, bridges and giant machines. But today engineers work increasingly on the scale of just a few atoms. Research at the nanoscale requires entirely new kinds of facilities, equipment and spaces.”

The new building will be home to about 15 faculty members, 20 or more research associates, 80 graduate students and numerous undergraduate researchers. It will also free up space for new engineering faculty, which is expected to grow from an estimated 50 scholars and researchers today to 60 over the next decade.

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In 2013, the university had raised $44 million in early gifts to be put toward funding the building and faculty. Brown expects to announce results of a silent phase of a new comprehensive fund-raising campaign Friday at 9:30 p.m., as well as the new goal for that campaign.

Brown’s undergraduate engineering program was established in 1847, making it the oldest in the Ivy League and the third oldest civilian program in the country. The school itself was established in 2010.

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