Shovels were lined up in preparation for the groundbreaking ceremony. (CU Independent/Sushupta Srinidhi)
A neat row of shovels and bright blue hard hats lined the mound of dirt near the East Campus of CU-Boulder as the groundbreaking ceremony for took place Wednesday.
The new Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, named after the Canadian-Ukrainian Jennie Caruthers, will focus on a wide range of medical issues, including cancer, tissue and aging research. The building will also house nearly 60 faculty members and more than 500 researchers as well as support staff.
A panel of speakers attended the groundbreaking ceremony, including Gov. Bill Ritter, former Nobel Laureate and CU-Boulder professor Thomas Cech and the family of the late Jenny Caruthers.
The new facility for biotechnology and biomedical research and teaching will house researchers from eight science departments at CU-Boulder: mathematics, chemistry and biochemistry, chemical and biological engineering, computer science, ecology and evolutionary biology, integrative physiology, MCD biology and physics.
Those at the ceremony said they were proud to be there.
“I am proud to be here,” said Dr. Leslie Leinwand, director and visionary of the project. “It is a great day for Boulder and a great day for Colorado.”
Gov. Ritter said he appreciated the CU community and staff members who worked tirelessly on the project, and assured listeners that the new facility had the state’s support.
He also discussed the expected wide-ranging benefits of the facility.
“This will give a chance to people around the world [for] a different health status,” Ritter said.
Cech, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 and participant in the new facility, joked about the similarities that the new facility has to physical chemistry.
He mentioned that it takes “proper orientation and the proper velocity for chemistry to happen.”
Cech also said that the new building would give members of different scientific backgrounds the opportunity to react positively in the center.
“It will be a safer environment, more attractive and will hopefully have better temperature control than our current lab,” Cech said.
The building will be completed within the next few years, and is predicted to be a community space for faculty, researchers and students alike.
Cech said the building is foreseen to not only help incorporate the different scientific backgrounds collaborate on their research, but to also stimulate the local economy and create a “vibrant science campus.”
Ritter said he also believes the building can have a positive impact.
“This can make a difference globally,” Ritter said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sushupta Srinidhi at Sushupta.srinidhi@colorado.edu.
