Middle Tennessee State University’s new campus showpiece — the 257,000-square-foot, $147 million Science Building — is ready for the ribbon-cutting celebration.

Gov. Bill Haslam

Gov. Bill Haslam is scheduled to attend with numerous other dignitaries, the campus community and alumni and friends of the university.

The grand opening will be held starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, at the facility located at 440 Friendship St., just off Alumni Drive on the south side of campus. The public is invited. (For those unable to attend, details about live broadcasts of the ceremony via online video streaming, television stations and WMOT-FM radio can be found here.) 

For visitors, a shuttle service will provide transportation from the Rutherford parking lot on Rutherford Boulevard starting at 9 a.m. For parking and building location, a printable campus map can be found at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParking14-15.

Dr. Sidney A. McPhee

Haslam, who will be introduced by university President Sidney A. McPhee, will be the primary guest speaker.

Chancellor John Morgan

Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan and other state and local dignitaries are scheduled to give remarks as well, along with select MTSU students and faculty.

“The building is already helping MTSU create more science graduates to fill high-tech jobs,” McPhee said. “It immediately makes MTSU more competitive for research projects, science scholarship and entrepreneurial efforts.”

The facility represents the state’s largest capital investment in higher education. It features 37 class laboratories, two open labs, 13 research labs, six classrooms, about 1,500 student stations in labs and classrooms, chemistry and biology faculty and staff offices, numerous informal learning areas and space for student presentations.

“MTSU’s new Science Building promotes dynamic, collaborative, experience-based teaching, interdisciplinary research opportunities, will help attract and retain highly qualified faculty and students and will make MTSU students more competitive in advanced study and science-based professions,” College of Basic and Applied Sciences Dean Bud Fischer said.

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Harry Kroto will deliver the first public lecture in the building at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20, in lecture hall Room 1006. Kroto shared the 1996 Nobel Prize with Robert F. Curl Jr. and Richard E. Smalley for their discovery of fullerenes, a series of carbon molecules.

The Science Building opened more than five months ahead of schedule. Turner Construction Company built the facility. Thomas, Miller & Partners PLLC served as project architect.

To view the MTSU Science Building Fact Sheet, visit http://www.mtsunews.com/sciencebuilding.

Refreshments and tours will follow the ceremony. The dedication coincides with MTSU Homecoming Week activities.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)