State to fund second science building

The Indiana State Budget committee met at Purdue University Friday and approved about $32 million in spending for IU's second new multidisciplinary science building. The Indiana General Assembly approved the project earlier this year.\nMultidisciplinary academic research facilities have made medical breakthroughs in the development of plasma, penicillin and the germ theory of disease. After receiving funding for a second multidisciplinary science building, officials say IU is one step closer to becoming one of these institutions.\nThe first multidisciplinary science building will be located between Jordan Hall and the Chemistry building. The second new science building will be located near the Geology Building off Tenth Street and between Woodlawn Avenue and Walnut Grove.\nIU Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Terry Clapacs has worked for state funding for the multidisciplinary science building for two years.\n"We are very pleased to get it approved," Clapacs said. "It is an important step for us."\nClapacs believes the multidisciplinary science building will create more jobs for the University and aid the Life Sciences Institute of Innovation program. \n"The building would help attract more research grants," Clapacs said. "The multidisciplinary science building would allow the Life Sciences to have more classes which would add more faculty and staff to the University." \nState Representative Vi Simpson (D-Bloomington), a member of the Indiana State Budget committee who approved the spending for the second building, said she believes the science building will add a great deal of research capacity to the Bloomington area and in turn stimulate Indiana's economy. Simpson said the research capacity of the building would attract research dollars from the federal government and encourage the private sector to give additional funds to the University.\nThe reason why universities like IU are so important is they are places where the new ideas come from, Simpson said.\n"This is kind of the nest where the eggs are going to be laid for new ideas," she said.\nSimpson said the research money is great for faculty and students.\n"The new facility would help attract elite students and staff because they are attracted to the premier facilities," she said.\nSimpson said the state's economy will be helped as well. The state sees the multidisciplinary science buildings as an investment, and a new research facility would attract more research dollars from the federal government and the private sector, she said. These investments would in turn have more products and services manufactured in Indiana.\n"Going aggressively for research dollars in the sciences will turn around into the market," Simpson said. "I am very excited because I believe the building will be a premier part of Indiana's economic development."\nThe IU board of trustees has been working for several years to develop a plan to have Life Sciences work together more efficiently. IU Trustee Sue Talbot believes the multidisciplinary science building would help the life sciences communicate more effectively. The science building would also add more room and attract more specialists in life science research. \n"The life sciences needed more space for first-class research," Talbot said.\nAccording to the multidisciplinary science building's Web site, the additional room in the building will help life science researchers develop breakthroughs in cancer, genetic diseases and carrier diseases like the West Nile Virus. In conjunction with the medical research conducted at the IU School of Medicine, the science building will help IU become a leader in the development of lifesaving and life-prolonging technologies.\nEven though IU has been approved for the second science building, Talbot said the progress in Life Sciences is far from over.\n"We have much more to do," she said. \n-- Contact staff writer Devon Thomas at deothoma@indiana.edu.