Breaking ground
Biomedical engineering building to go up on Busch campus
Archived article from Sep 23, 2002
By Bill Haduch
New Jersey's status as a world center of the pharmaceutical, medical device and health care industries is gaining a new focal point. Groundbreaking took place Sept. 4 for a $23.8 million, 60,000-square-foot building dedicated to biomedical engineering.
"The best and brightest minds in health care and engineering have long gravitated to New Jersey, and especially the New Brunswick/ Piscataway area, to collaborate with their peers and bring shape to their dreams," said President Francis L. Lawrence. "This new facility will provide an education and research centerpiece for all of New Jersey's vast biotechnology, pharmaceutical and health care communities."
The four-story structure on the university's Busch campus in Piscataway is targeted for completion in 2004. Features include core facilities for genomics and proteomics, tissue engineering, biomedical imaging optics, microfabrication and animal study.
There will be a high-performance computing and visualization center, laboratories, offices and a 200-seat auditorium and conference center.
"The building's prominent location at what is planned to become the main entrance to the Busch campus corresponds directly with the prominence and proximity of the industries and professions it will serve," said Joseph J. Seneca, university vice president for academic affairs. "Not only is it adjacent to all key Rutgers engineering facilities, but it is within minutes of New Jersey's superb medical school and university hospital, as well as the corporate headquarters of Johnson & Johnson. Its location is less than 45 minutes from more than 100 leading pharmaceutical and biomedical technology firms, including 15 of the 20 largest health care companies in the world."
Among those attending the event in addition to Lawrence and Seneca were Michael Klein, dean, School of Engineering; Martin Yarmush, chair, department of biomedical engineering; and Gene O'Hara, chair, Rutgers Board of Governors.
The building was designed by KSS Architects LLP of Princeton and Philadelphia, a leading regional designer of academic facilities, including a recent addition to the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum on the College Avenue campus.
Funding for building construction includes $10 million from New Jersey's Higher Education Capital Improvement Program, $2 million from private donors and $1 million from the state of New Jersey. Rutgers will fund the balance.
Klein called the groundbreaking a milestone for New Jersey's medical leadership. "The new building provides a definitive centerpiece for biomedical engineering in New Jersey and for people all over the world who will benefit from the talent and innovations discovered and developed here."
The biomedical engineering department is home to 20 core faculty and about 60 additional graduate program faculty members. "This construction project and the addition of several new faculty fast forwards our objective of positioning Rutgers as the center of biomedical engineering in the most concentrated health care region in the world," said Yarmush. "Our new facility will foster creative collaborations and increase research synergy among faculty, students and industry alike."
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