Top Officials Cite Importance of Planned UM Physical Sciences Complex

Top Officials Cite Importance of Planned UM Physical Sciences Complex

	Artist's Rendering

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Federal, state and university officials came together Monday to ceremonially break ground for the University of Maryland's new state-of-the-art Physical Sciences Complex.

	University of Maryland President C.D. Mote, Jr. speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony. Listen to the Groundbreaking Ceremony (mp3)

Speakers at the event -- including Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Patrick Gallagher, and University of Maryland President C.D. Mote, Jr. -- lauded the economic, scientific and innovation benefits that creation of the new world-class science facility will bring to the state and the nation.

In his remarks Governor O'Malley called the $128-million project "the number-one capital priority of the O'Malley-Brown administration." The State's $115.7 million contribution to the Physical Sciences Complex, he said, reflects the belief that "the discoveries, technologies and innovations that are being advanced every day in laboratories, universities and companies throughout our state hold the promise and potential to remake our economy - and in the broader sense, our world - by unlocking the solution to how we can better feed, fuel, protect and heal our planet.

"This complex will rank among the best of its kind anywhere in the world," O'Malley said, "fitting for one of the leading institutions of learning and discovery anywhere in the world. It will be ... supporting construction jobs while it is being built and fueling our economy when it's completed."

	Congressman Hoyer (right) speaks with Governor O'Malley (left) during groundbreaking ceremony.

Some $10.3 million for the project comes from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The money goes to build, as part of the complex, an advanced quantum science laboratory that Maryland officials say will be unsurpassed by any such lab in the world.

Noting that the recovery act contained "the biggest investment in basic research of any bill I have voted on in 30 years in the House of Representatives," Congressman Hoyer said of the $10.3 million NIST grant: "There is probably no investment that any of us could make - period -- that would be a better investment than the taxpayers have made in this facility. It is a great example, not only of the partnership as I said, between the university and the state, but also the federal government as well. From my perspective this is a prime example of your federal dollars at work."

Construction on the complex is scheduled to begin in June, with completion of Phase 1 in 2013. The complex will house the university's physics and astronomy departments, as well as the interdisciplinary Institute for Physical Sciences and Technology and the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a research partnership of the University of Maryland and NIST.

The timing is auspicious, said University of Maryland President Mote, because "we are entering a new era of physical sciences research" and "this is going to be the best physical science research complex in the country, if not in the world. It will really enable the best of the best to do their work here." He noted the long history of cooperative activities between the university and NIST, calling it a "stellar partnership" that would continue to result in "highly impacting, job-creating, game-changing activities."

During the event, NIST Director Gallagher noted that his institute awarded the university the $10.3 million ARRA grant through a highly competitive process in which its proposal was one of 167 competing requests from across the nation. To receive the award, he said, "you really had to have earned it. So my congratulations to everyone who worked on the proposal. It was the best of the best, and that's why we're here today."

The Physical Sciences Complex, which at its highest point will stand five stories above ground and extend two floors underground, will contain 158,068 square feet of space. The building's functional and imaginative design will be highlighted by a multi-story elliptical glass cone open to the sky. Passing through the center of an elevated area of offices, the cone will provide natural lighting for the collaborative space and corridors at each level.

The complex will house 18 prep labs (9,700 sq. ft.); 27 laser and condensed matter Labs (16,400 sq. ft.); 8 biophysics labs (4,300 sq. ft.); 12 conference rooms (5,358 sq. ft.) a 5,000 square-feet plaza and a 3,000 square-feet lobby.

One the most impressive labs will be the Laboratory for Advanced Quantum Science, which will feature world-class control of vibration and electromagnetic interference, and precision environmental infrastructure for air filtration, ultra-stable temperature and humidity. The lab will equal or exceed the exacting specifications of the Advanced Measurement Laboratory complex at NIST, widely regarded as the most sophisticated facilities of their kind.

Scientists in the Joint Quantum Institute say cutting-edge research in quantum science demands such exacting specifications -- making possible future discoveries that almost certainly will contribute to our basic understanding of the universe, as well as advance future technologies in cryptography, advanced computing and the design and use of sensors of many kinds.

Steve Halperin, Dean of the university's College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, said that the Physical Sciences Complex "will be the most advanced building of its kind on an American university campus. The research that will be enabled in this facility will vault the University upwards in national and international stature in the physical sciences from its already eminent status among the top 15 universities in the country. The unique design of a building that is both very attractive and highly functional will stimulate cross-disciplinary collaboration and make it much easier to attract new faculty of the highest caliber."