As Michael Thomashow addressed a crowd of more than 30 people Friday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the $43 million expansion of the Plant and Soil Sciences Building, he drew parallels between the addition and its potential to bridge academic disciplines.
The professor of crop and soil sciences and director of MSU’s Plant Research Laboratory told the ceremony’s attendees that the expansion — which will connect the Plant and Soil Sciences Building with the Plant Biology Laboratories — will facilitate multidisciplinary research that will maintain MSU’s position near the forefront of the plant sciences.
“The physical placement of this building, in a sense, provides a metaphor for this need to bridge the basic and applied plant sciences,” Thomashow said at the ceremony.
“It’s a clear demonstration and a shout-out that the intent of MSU is to remain a major player in the area of plant and agricultural sciences.”
Following the project’s approval by the MSU Board of Trustees in December, Friday’s ceremony was the latest in the expansion’s materialization. Construction is slated to begin in mid-May and is expected to finish by 2012.
It primarily will contain laboratory and research space, although an auditorium and meeting space also will be included. The building will be 80,000 square feet and four stories tall.
The expansion comes at a time of budget uncertainties and numerous cuts to university operations and academic programs, but administrators justified the project’s price tag and necessity by saying the expansion will help MSU maintain its pre-eminence in the plant sciences.
J. Ian Gray, MSU vice president for research and graduate studies, said the expansion also will help MSU maintain and recruit key faculty in the plant sciences. These tasks will be more easily accomplished since the expansion also will foster interdisciplinary collaboration, he said.
“We needed to update our facilities to accommodate the expansion of our plant sciences programs and, more importantly, to accommodate the integration of our plant science programs with … other disciplines on campus,” Gray said.
Plant biology sophomore Matt Chansler said students and faculty will benefit from the connection of two research buildings.
“In the end, it’s a good idea,” Chansler said.
“I think there needs to be a little bit more communication between the two buildings, and I think it’s going to make things a little more efficient.”
University officials and faculty said research conducted in the expansion will have worldwide implications, such as solving food and energy shortages. The facility also will bolster research already being conducted at the university, MSU Provost Kim Wilcox said.
“(Our) strength in plant genetics, in plant biology, is something that infiltrates much of the rest of the campus,” Wilcox said. “It’s a core strength of our university.”
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