Molecular Building opens to students

The Molecular Science and Engineering (MSE) building opened for classes in August and administration starts to move in this Monday. The project is the final addition to a quadruplet of buildings that serve as a demonstration of Tech's emphasis on interdisciplinary research.

According to Ronald Rousseau, the chair of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the building will be host to research activities that are specific to the field of molecular science.

"The main purpose of the building is to complete the plan that had been made for this complex. It involves academic units and research activities in areas related to molecular science and the applications of molecular science," Rousseau said.

According to Thomas Orlando, the chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, those academic units are comprised of departments throughout the Colleges of Sciences and Engineering.

"Contributors to that center are campus-wide," Orlando said.

These contributors come from departments such as Physics, Electrical Engineering, MSE and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

However the principal occupant is the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

"[The building] will be the School of Chemistry's primary home. It will house administrative offices as well as operational infrastructure," Orlando said.

The building will be home to the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE). "It is a very active center with a core group who we recruited from University of Arizona a few years ago. They're among premier researchers in area of organic photonics and electronics," Orlando said.

COPE's research focuses on the molecular basis for biological processes and also examines the new bio-component of materials.

The Center for Molecular Imaging will also reside in the MSE building.

This group is currently conducting research into novel approaches to microscopy as well as the monitoring of cellular processes in real space and time.

"[The MSE building] gets the right people in the right place, gets them working together and they're able to respond to issues," Orlando said.

While the idea for a MSE building was created a while ago, construction was started in the fall of 2004 since funding for the building was made available in 2003.

"In 2003, things coalesced for the building and construction started in fall '04" said Fred Dolder, Senior Project Manager.

According to Dolder, the building received a certificate of substantial completion on Aug. 11th and that administration and staff would move into the building starting on Sept. 18th.

Due to the availability of funds, this initial effort has seen the construction of the east tower of the building and the administrative spaces which lie on both sides of the atrium.

"That is the limit of this initial construction effort and that is bounded by the dollars available. We are in the process of securing funds to build out the West Tower laboraties and support spaces" Dolder said.

Some technology that is being implemented in this building includes an energy recovery system that, while expensive, is aimed at saving costs.

"We would hopefully be getting the payback on this in five to seven years" Dolder said.

The building is comprised of 272,700 gross square feet that covers a five-story structure.

The building has four forty-seat classrooms and one 150-seat lecture theater. It will also have space for graduate research assistants.

"The atrium that exists in the center of the building makes itself and lends itself to special events and provides a really wonderful view looking onto the quad. Eventually it will give a beautiful view into the North, once the Eco-commons is put into place," Dolder said.

The MSE building completes the quadruplet building construction that started with the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) building.

The Ford Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T) building which houses the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as well as the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) was the second building constructed and the Whitaker building which houses the School of Biomedical Engineering and the MSE building was the third.