By Ellen Walker Ternes '68
Photography by John T. Consoli '86

Biosciences Building Draws Top Researchers

After the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson came out of an Iowa cornfield and told Kevin Costner “If you build it, they will come,” the phrase became something of a cliché. But in the case of the university’s new Bioscience Research Building, Joe’s adage is proving refreshingly true in College Park.

“They” are top scientists from around the country who are joining Maryland faculty already making their mark in life sciences research. And they’re coming, in part, because inside the traditional brick and pillars of the new building is a configuration of 21st century labs and spaces where they will be able to take their biosciences research to world class levels.

Seeking World Class

"When Dan Mote began his tenure as university president, one of his first goals was to make the University of Maryland a leader in the biosciences. “There will be no great research university in the coming decades that is not excellent in the biosciences,” he told the Maryland General Assembly in 2002. “There will be no state that can lead in the biotech industry without the resource of a major research university with world class leadership in the biosciences.”

And to make that happen, he said, the university would need more space to add people and the kind of research facilities that would let faculty, postdocs, graduate, and undergraduate students soar in their study of the questions that have exploded in the wake of the biological sciences revolution of the past few decades. The General Assembly agreed with President Mote and approved funds for construction of a new building. Today, $69 million and three years after groundbreaking, the Bioscience Research Building is open for the business of research and learning.

More Than a Building

With the building’s completion, Norma Allewell, dean of the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, feels a bit like 134,000 square feet of brick and mortar have lifted from her shoulders. One of Allewell’s assignments when she became dean was to help get the new research space, then see it through its construction. It was a monumental task in the midst of her other duties as dean of a large college, but one she’d had experience with. “It was a rare opportunity to lead an exciting project, and play an important role in transforming the University of Maryland,” Allewell said.

“I’ve always been interested in the facilities that make the academic world work. Planning for the building caused us to do a lot of thinking about where we should be going with the research programs of the college,” said Allewell. “Knowing we would have the new space, we were able to develop a strategic plan for building three of the most exciting areas of contemporary science—neuroscience, genomics and pathogens—at Maryland.”

What’s in a Building?

On the outside, the Bioscience Research Building looks like a lot of buildings on campus—red brick, modest white pillars at the entrance that faces Hornbake Plaza, banks of windows that look out onto the baseball field on one side and a football practice field on another.

Inside, though, the building is a modern, airy, brightly lit space with blond wood pillars. Unlike the Byzantine Biology-Psychology Building, where some swear a few confused undergraduates have been wandering for years looking for the exit, you can see from one end of a hallway to the other. There are 35 labs, a state-of-the-art 480-seat lecture hall, conference rooms, small outcroppings with seats where colleagues can chat, and space for postdocs and graduate students to grab lunch in some comfort.

Labs can be configured for whatever the researcher needs, then reconfigured if needs change. Several labs contain core instruments and equipment that researchers from anywhere on campus can use for genomics and microscopy research. Two labs are BSL- 3, meaning they have a strict biosafety design that allows researchers to safely work with live pathogens, the microorganisms that cause disease.

In fact, the entire third floor will house the new Maryland Pathogen Research Institute (MPRI), headed by David Mosser, an internationally recognized Maryland faculty member and pathogen researcher. MPRI will be a primary user of the BSL-3 labs, to study new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent the spread of pathogens. It’s research that wouldn’t have been possible in the old lab space.

“You can do good science anywhere,” Mosser says, “But without state-of-the-art equipment and core facilities, you can’t do great science.”

For Chuck Delwiche—who has been doing his plant genetics research in the venerable H.J. Patterson Hall—knowing the power won’t go out on the freezer where he stores his samples, that air temperature will be stable, that he has enough gas pressure to fix broken glass, and that purified water is instantly ready on tap are some of the most promising prospects of his move to the new space.

But perhaps the one aspect of the new building that excites everyone is that it is so inviting for faculty and students, from everywhere on campus, across disciplines, to interact in a shared space. “It’s a people-friendly science building,” said Bill Olen ’85, ’89, the university’s assistant director of the building’s construction.

Said Elizabeth Quinlan, a neuroscience researcher who’s been working out of the basement of the Chemistry building, “The new space will bring me and my lab closer to colleagues with similar research interests. I think the state-of-the-art lab space and experimental resources will inspire creativity and collaboration.”

They Will Come

One of the hopes for the building is already coming to fruition. Faculty who are going to be national and international leaders are joining a core of established scientists already here. Quinlan, for example, says the promise of the research space was an important factor in her decision to come to Maryland. Vincent Lee, a young researcher who did his undergraduate work here and graduate and post-doctoral work at UCLA and Harvard Medical School, says the building helped his decision to return to Maryland.

Following them, says biology department chair Richard Payne, will be others who want to work with the people at Maryland, and behind them will be graduate students who want to work with these bright minds. And, in the cycle of things, says Payne, having great graduate students draws more great researchers.

Payne already has had the pleasure of seeing the reaction to the building of a researcher from another institution. “A visiting seminar speaker saw the space and said ‘Wow, this is so much better than what I have.’” Payne expects it won’t be the last such reaction, now that there is outstanding space to hold seminars. “People will go away and say this is a wonderful place.”

The Beginning

As excited as she is with the Bioscience Research Building, Allewell hopes it doesn’t end here. “The campus needs more space to continue to develop life science facilities. One pressing need is for modern animal facilities to extend studies beyond the test tube.”

But the building is a magnificent step, she says. “We hope and expect it will accelerate the momentum of the college to national excellence. We will all view the world differently through the message the building conveys.” TERP

Want to learn more?

Join the University of Maryland Alumni Association now to automatically receive Terp Magazine and to stay connected to the University of Maryland community.