Nanoscale Science Building Gets Explosive Start at Rice

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NANOSCALE SCIENCE BUILDING GETS EXPLOSIVE START AT RICE

Explosive pyrotechnics triggered by a nanoscale carbon structure
will break ground for the future home of the Center for Nanoscale
Science and Technology at Rice University on April 30.

The building is part of Rice’s nanoscale science and technology
initiative, a commitment to a new facility, endowed faculty chairs
and equipment for research in the field. A $32.3 million campaign is
under way to support the initiative. The Center for Nanoscale
Science and Technology will support interdisciplinary research in
the field of nanoscale science, the science of creating materials
and machines atom by atom. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.

In a groundbreaking ceremony set for 1 p.m., Richard Smalley, co
-discoverer of buckyballs, the third form of carbon, and director of
the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, will deliver the
keynote speech.

The building will stand on the northwest side of campus, at the
corner of Campanile Road and Alumni Drive.

onstruction will begin
immediately, and the building is expected to be completed in the
fall of 1997. The four-story building will have undergraduate labs,
classrooms, conference space and an advanced research laboratory
featuring the most sophisticated equipment for nanoscale research.

Twelve faculty members from chemistry, physics and electrical
engineering will be housed in the building, but research will also
involve faculty from biochemistry and cell biology, chemical
engineering and materials sciences. The building will also house
about one-third of the chemistry department faculty.

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