Editor’s note: the former integrated learning and
research facility has been named the Academic & Research Center.
ATHENS, Ohio
(March 3, 2007) — Ohio University College of Osteopathic
Medicine’s (OU-COM) Society of Alumni and Friends has given
$50,000 to support the building of the University’s new
integrated learning and research facility. The gift is the
single largest one-time donation made on behalf of an Ohio
University alumni society. The $30 million multidisciplinary
facility is a joint project of OU-COM, the Fritz J. and Dolores
H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology, and the Colleges
of Health and Human Services and Arts and Sciences.
The $50,000 gift
will support the facility’s café, which will be named by the
society. The café reflects the collaborative intent of the new
facility, a space designed to foster the exchange of ideas that
leads to interdisciplinary research projects. The café will be
located in the heart of the rotunda, a large atrium-like space
that will serve as an informal gathering place for students and
faculty. The openness of the rotunda will reflect the spacious,
studio-like architecture of the building’s classrooms and
laboratories.
To be built on
the university’s West Green in Athens, the integrated learning
and research facility will be a site that combines world-class
research spaces with classrooms and study rooms. The facility
will bring together under one roof a variety of disciplines —
from electrical and mechanical engineering to biomedicine and
physical therapy — to explore new medicines, develop new
clinical treatments, and advance science, engineering and
technology.
Scientists and clinicians will come together with other
researchers, clinical affiliates, and industry partners to
engage in research to improve osteopathic health care, community
health and quality of life. The innovative center is designed to
create an active community in which faculty, students,
clinicians and scientists make discoveries that will advance the
university to a new level.
For Thomas
Anderson, D.O. (’83), president of the society, the
construction of the new building is critical in supporting OU-COM’s
education and research missions. The society, made up of OU-COM
alumni, is dedicated to promoting osteopathic education and
research, alumni participation, scholarship support and
development activities at the medical college.
“All board
members agree that this research center will promote OU-COM and
OU and provide a venue for medical research to strengthen our
college’s profile — nationally and internationally — as the
leading osteopathic medical college,” said Anderson.
“I would like to
thank the society for its support of medical education and
research at Ohio University,” said OU-COM Dean Jack Brose,
D.O. “The members of the Ohio osteopathic profession are our
most valued partners and collaborators.”
More than $20
million has been raised to support construction of the
four-level, 100,000-sq. ft. research building. Inside the
facility will be project rooms, learning studios, a competition
hangar, research laboratories, a student leadership center, a
faculty collaboration suite, a graduate teacher training suite,
a Center of Excellence, a rotunda/living room, an exhibition
gallery, informal gathering nooks, a cyber lounge, and the café.
It is designed
architecturally from the ground up to facilitate learning and
research efforts, Brose said.
“It’s been my
experience that great collaborations don’t come about from
formal meetings. They’re impromptu,” said Brose. “They come from
people standing in a hallway and talking, going together to a
conference, or just bumping into each other. More ideas will
come from meeting someone in the café than from formal
meetings.”
To learn more about Ohio University’s integrated learning and
research facility, please go to
www.ohio.edu/development/ilrf/.
The mission of Ohio University
College of Osteopathic Medicine is innovative learning, focused
research and compassionate care for Ohio and beyond. Each year
more than 100 osteopathic physicians graduate from OU-COM,
Ohio’s only college of osteopathic medicine. Fifty-four percent
of OU-COM alumni practice in primary care fields, and more than
60 percent of its graduates remain in Ohio, where they are more
likely to practice in rural and other physician-shortage areas.
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