(Dr. Mark Abrahams stands in the atrium of the new core sciences facility at Memorial University.)
Memorial University has given its first public peek at the brand new core sciences facility.
The new 480,000 square foot facility is slated to open this September just in time for the fall semester.
A look at the size of the main atrium @VOCMNEWS pic.twitter.com/2QycyVnQF9
— Richard Duggan (@RDugganVOCM) July 6, 2021
The main atrium is bright with windows that stretch from the bottom floor right up to the very top. Soon, the skeleton of a 82-foot blue whale will be hanging in that space.
The new building includes research labs, teaching labs, faculty and student collaboration spaces, and room for partnerships with private industry.
Dr. Mark Abrahams, provost and vice president (academic), has been part of the planning process for the new facility since the very beginning.
When he first arrived as the Dean of Science, he toured the existing science buildings and shut down some of the labs because he was “shocked” by what he saw.
Funding was initially given to upgrade the existing facilities, but he says it was more cost effective to build a new facility from the ground up.
(The exterior of the new core sciences building at Memorial University.)
Dr. Abrahams says he has toured many of most-renowned institutions in the world, such as Harvard and MIT, and believes MUN’s new building stacks up.
He says it’s “just as good, if not better” than what he has seen elsewhere, and calls it a “world-leading facility.”
A look at one of the science labs and also one of the engineering labs.
Those machines attached to the ceiling of the science lab will contain the gas from chemical reactions, transporting them safely out of the room @VOCMNEWS pic.twitter.com/lUteQhfStP
— Richard Duggan (@RDugganVOCM) July 6, 2021
