UConn Science 1 Building Debuts, Visual Tour Offered

STORRS, CT — The University of Connecticut's new Science 1 building is up and running.

UConn officials were joined by state leaders and industry partners Thursday to officially open the state-of-the-art Science 1 facility. UConn President Radenka Maric said, "Science 1 is transforming the way we educate."

Science 1 is located on King Hill Road.

"This new building will support our efforts for federal funding and support our industry in the state," Maric added. "We want to be at the top of innovation in Connecticut. I always tell people Connecticut is a state of innovation, we are just too humble to tell people how innovative we are."

Science 1 , the new home of the Institute of Materials Science, is one of the largest projects in the Next Generation Connecticut initiative, which was announced in 2013 to "significantly expand" UConn's educational and research work in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math.

The building is one of UConn’s largest and most technologically advanced facilities, with about 198,000 square feet dedicated to research, teaching, and "core laboratories."

It also features a 240-seat active-learning room designed to "engage students more dynamically than traditional lecture halls; and faculty offices, public spaces, administrative support offices, and informal gathering places."

Science 1 also includes a “clean room,” which is a space designed to support specialized scientific research in a tightly controlled environment where contamination is minimized to protect the work by filtering airborne particles from within the room.

UConn offered a visual tour of the building:

See more about the facility on the UConn Today site.