Finding better ways to grow food, protect clean water and improve human health takes people with different kinds of expertise. Auburn University’s new $224 million STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex brings those people together — and gives students a place to learn alongside them.
Auburn marked the complex’s opening Oct. 23, celebrating the largest academic construction project in university history. Already in use this fall, the 265,000-square-foot facility houses six departments from the College of Agriculture and the College of Sciences and Mathematics.
“At its core, this building was designed around a simple idea: bringing people together so they can solve problems together,” Auburn President Christopher B. Roberts said.
“The challenges facing our world do not fit neatly within a single discipline. Whether we are addressing food security, environmental stewardship, human health or emerging technologies, progress depends on collaboration. The STEM+AG Complex was designed with that in mind.”
Nearly 70% of the complex is devoted to teaching and research laboratories. Shared workspaces put researchers from different fields of study closer together, creating opportunities to exchange ideas and begin new partnerships.
For students, that means opportunities to participate in research while gaining practical experience in the laboratories.
“In COSAM, we pursue research that advances our understanding of the world and improves lives. We also give students meaningful opportunities to participate in that work. This complex helps us do both,” said Edward Thomas Jr., dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics.
“As our faculty pursue new discoveries, our students will learn alongside them, developing the skills and confidence to ask their own questions and carry that work forward.”
The college’s departments of Biological Sciences, Geosciences, and Mathematics and Statistics share the complex with three College of Agriculture departments: Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences; Entomology and Plant Pathology; and Horticulture.
College of Agriculture Dean Arthur Appel said the facility gives those research teams new resources for work that reaches well beyond campus.
“The work these research teams do touches communities at the most fundamental level through basic human needs such as food and clean water. I am proud that these teams are now working in this modern, advanced scientific facility, and I am proud for our students, who are gaining hands-on experience in some of the very best agricultural teaching labs and classrooms available.”
The complex’s three buildings are connected by a sky bridge and underground walkways. Inside, windows offer views into laboratories, display cases hold fossils and mathematical models, and some light fixtures resemble strands of DNA.
Natural light is a central part of the design, and flexible laboratory layouts allow spaces to change as research needs evolve.
The project received a $50 million allocation from the state through the Public School and College Authority, championed by Gov. Kay Ivey. Yellowhammer News previously reported on the funding as part of a broader package of education projects across Alabama.
Roughly 350 faculty, staff, and researchers moved into the complex this summer. Students have since filled its laboratories and common meeting areas.
Roberts, Thomas and Appel joined Board of Trustees President Pro Tempore Jimmy Sanford for the opening event in Building A.
“What began as an ambitious plan to strengthen instruction, research and collaboration has become a vibrant new academic home for students, faculty and staff,” Sanford said.
With the complex open, Roberts said its lasting value would come from the work ahead.
“Years from now, the most important measure of this complex will be the discoveries made here and the lives improved because of the work that happens within these walls.”
Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].
