Dr. Mary A. Papazian
Some great news recently for San José State: the design of our new Interdisciplinary Science Building (ISB), the first academic building in 30 years on our campus, was approved by the CSU Board of Trustees earlier this month at the Board’s September meeting!
This will be more than just another building. The ISB will serve as the anchor of a four-building Science and Innovation Complex to be situated on the southwest quadrant of our campus. Advances like this are why MONEY magazine recently named San José State the fourth most transformative college in the entire nation.
SJSU’s new Interdisciplinary Science Building (rendering)
This essential, much-needed science facility—an innovative and forward-looking blending of teaching and research—will enhance interdisciplinary STEM education, expand our research capabilities, and provide more opportunities for students and faculty to collaborate with our industry partners, particularly those here in the Silicon Valley region. Occupancy is scheduled to begin just three years from now.
Our current science buildings house laboratory classrooms built decades ago in the 1950s and 1960s. As we went through the design process for this new space, we strove for a cutting edge, modern building that will be forward-looking — to the future of our students, of education, of research, and of Silicon Valley.
Imagine a building where each floor has a collaboration and mentoring hub for students to work on interdisciplinary projects, connect with faculty, and meet with industry partners, visiting scientists, and collaborators.
Imagine a space that turns the hallways between classrooms and research labs into a “collaboratory” that allows student and faculty researchers to brainstorm and plan out their projects.
Imagine a high-performance computing suite for astronomers, physicists, social scientists, health professionals and more—where students and faculty from different disciplines can share their work and improve their research techniques.
This is our vision for the new Interdisciplinary Science Building.
The ISB will be located in the southwest quadrant of campus, near Duncan Hall, one of two existing science buildings.
Michael Kaufman, Dean of our College of Science, has said that the basic research done in the College – from nano-materials and big-data astrophysics, fire weather and climate change, biotechnology and applied mathematics, machine learning and geographic information systems – helps to build industries.
With the new Interdisciplinary Science Building and the eventual completion of the entire Science and Innovation Complex, we will be able to build even more impactful and innovative industries.
We look forward to moving into the construction phase of this project!