New Building Planned for Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry

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Collaborative research between chemists and engineers will be easier and more advanced in the near future.

Koffolt Laboratories architect rendering

The William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering will share space with Ohio State’s Department of Chemistry in a new, 225,000-square-foot building set to open in 2015.

In the essence of University President E. Gordon Gee's “One Ohio State Framework,” the two departments will share the centralized research facility, the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building (CBEC), for chemical and materials synthesis and characterization.  The building will accommodate the teaching and research program of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the research activities of the Chemisty department currently housed in Evans laboratory. The new building will be a substantial upgrade from current facilities and will enable a much stronger focus on interdisciplinary research.

With a budget of $126 million, the building aims to provide modern, flexible learning and research spaces to attract the best faculty and students available. The building will also be a resource for alumni and various corporate and governmental entities involved with the departments.

The Aviation Building, Johnston Laboratory, Boyd Hall and Haskett Hall are set to be demolished over the next year to make room for the CBEC building, designed to fill the footprint of those structures in accordance with the “no net new academic space” principle of the new framework.

Ohio State Facilities Operations and Development details the new CBEC building as a community of scientists, engineers, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and technical staff working collaboratively on research such as nano/bioscience and technology, energy-related materials, energy and the environment, theory, modeling and simulations.

Construction will begin in June 2012 and finish by December 2014. The new building will feature a 125-seat lecture hall on the first floor as well as a student lounge with a 360-degree view of campus on the top floor. The old chemical and biomolecular engineering laboratory, built in 1958 and named in honor of former department chair Joseph Koffolt, will be repurposed by the university. The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering portion of the new building will be named Koffolt Laboratories. The chemistry department’s portion of the building is still open for naming.

“I am very excited about a building where students will have a work environment conducive to learning, where research will be conducted in laboratories that are up to the standards of the new century, and all our alumni will be proud to return and call it home,” said Umit Ozkan, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

The collaboration between departments will broaden coursework and research offerings, speed the process of critical discoveries and allow more comprehensive opportunities for industry involvement.

Contact:

Jason Haskins, director of development, (614) 292-9915 or haskins.8@osu.edu

Categories: ResearchCollege