NEW YORK - January 27, 2025 — Barnard College President Laura Ann Rosenbury and Provost Rebecca L. Walkowitz joined faculty, students, staff, and supporters to celebrate the completion of the exterior of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center (R&D Science Center), marking the next step in the construction of this groundbreaking facility that will serve as a hub for innovative scientific teaching and research.
The R&D Science Center, made possible by a historic gift from Diana T. Vagelos ’55 and Dr. P. Roy Vagelos — the largest gift in Barnard’s history — will feature state-of-the-art classrooms and labs and will house all of Barnard’s bench sciences, including the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Neuroscience and Behavior, and Physics and Astronomy. The Center, scheduled to open in 2026, will double the amount of space on campus devoted to science research and teaching. With a total size of 169,000 square feet, the R&D Science Center will be nearly three times the size of an American football field and firmly establishes Barnard’s commitment to continued excellence in STEM education.
It will also be the first net zero-operational carbon, all-electric, academic science building in New York City, supporting Barnard’s goal of reaching net-zero operational carbon by 2040.
“This Center will serve as a home for Barnard’s cutting-edge science scholarship,” said President Laura Ann Rosenbury. “Thanks to the Vagelos family’s generous gift, Barnard can prepare students to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. From fighting climate change to advancing precision medicine and bioinformatics, the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center is where aspiring scientists will learn to become tomorrow’s research leaders.”
When complete, the R&D Science Center’s labs and other work spaces will provide ample opportunities for the Summer Research Institute (SRI), Barnard’s signature summer research program, which annually supports several hundred students in faculty-mentored undergraduate research. One of Barnard’s newest academic majors — Neuroscience and Behavior, which is already among the top 10 selected majors — will also benefit from increased spaces.
In addition, the expansion includes a Community Science Classroom that will provide opportunities to engage the broader Morningside Heights and Harlem communities in collaborations, science workshops, and interactive exhibits featuring student and faculty research.
“The RDSC offers our faculty and student researchers a facility appropriate to the technologies, scope of collaboration, and scientific methods of the second quarter of the 21st century,” said Provost Rebecca L. Walkowitz. “Our teaching labs and lecture spaces, the research facilities, and the organization of our offices and seminar rooms are designed to maximize intellectual exchange, close working relationships between students and faculty, and our students’ opportunities to develop new questions and work with our distinguished faculty to design the experiments that will help answer them.”
As part of the ceremony, President Rosenbury thanked the construction and architectural teams working diligently to complete the renovation. Immediately following her remarks, members of the community in attendance signed a symbolic metal beam.
STEM @ Barnard
As a leader in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, Barnard is devoted to empowering young women to pursue their passions across these disciplines: Nearly half (49%) of the Class of 2024 majored in the sciences (compared with 27% nationally in 2021) and 43% of underrepresented minority graduates in the Class of 2024 were STEM majors (compared with 23% nationally in 2021). Barnard students have unique opportunities to conduct original research with scholars and practitioners on and off campus. Since its launch in 2014, more than 1,700 students have participated in Barnard’s 10-week Summer Research Institute (SRI), which facilitates and funds research opportunities and hosts one of the largest gatherings of women scientists in NYC. Over the past decade, SRI students have earned 17 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships and 18 honorable mentions.
Learn more about Barnard science education and the R&D Science Center.
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