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View a photo slide show from Tuesday’s groundbreaking on the Research Center of Excellence II Web site (www.unmc.edu/rce2). |
The ceremonial groundbreaking also honored the principal donor to the two towers, legendary Omaha businessman Chuck Durham, president and CEO of Durham Resources.
“Today’s groundbreaking marks another milestone in our quest to become a world-class academic health sciences center,” UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., said. “Because of the hard work of dedicated medical scientists and the outstanding support we’ve received from generous supporters such as Chuck Durham, we’re well on our way to making our goals a reality.”
The 10-level facility, presently being called the Research Center of Excellence II, will be nearly identical to the Durham Research Center, which opened in 2003. It will contain 252,179 gross square feet with 98 state-of-the-art laboratories, as well as office space for investigators and laboratory support space. It will be located only a few yards south of the Durham Research Center on the northwest corner of Durham Research Plaza (formerly 45th Street) and Emile Street. The two research towers will be connected with a covered passageway.
Funding for the $74 million facility will come largely through private support, with Durham, 88, providing the lead gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation. In addition, the Nebraska Legislature approved a plan to appropriate $12 million in non-state general fund resources. The state support is intended primarily to construct bioterrorism preparedness laboratories within the RCE II. Other support possibly will come from federal monies.
Tuesday’s ceremony included remarks from several elected and university dignitaries, including Gov. Dave Heineman, U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel and Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey. Heineman and Fahey officially proclaimed Tuesday as “Chuck Durham Day” in Nebraska and Omaha, respectively. As part of the ceremony, UNMC announced that it has commissioned a sculpture of Durham by Omaha artist John Lajba. The sculpture will be located near the entrances of the two research towers.
“No one has embraced our research vision more than Chuck Durham,” Dr. Maurer said. “It’s appropriate that as our scientists and their staffs come to work each morning, they’ll be reminded of the importance that this man has had on our research growth and success… Chuck’s generosity will reverberate for generations to come.”
During the ceremony, 15 medical center researchers marched to the stage in their white coats to represent all UNMC researchers in expressing their gratitude to the Durham family.
The groundbreaking “celebrates the next milestone in research growth at the University of Nebraska,” said James B. Milliken, president of the University of Nebraska system.
Among all public universities, NU’s national research stature is climbing. Last year, NU ranked 33 with such institutions as Michigan University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas. “UNMC has played a very significant role in research success at the university,” Milliken said.
Clarence Castner of the University of Nebraska Foundation called Durham and others who have supported UNMC’s research enterprise “models in strategic philanthropy.”
Walter Scott, chairman emeritus of Peter Kiewit Sons’s, Inc., said he met Durham in 1964 and has learned three things about him. “Chuck is not a passive philanthropist,” he said, rather he serves as a primary mover for a number of causes. “He believes and practices the age-old concept of stewardship,” Scott said, leaving a place better than when he found it. He also said “a big pocketbook is only meaningful if accompanied with a big heart.Chuck recognized the medical center’s potential to be a research powerhouse.and gets an A+ for vision.”
On behalf of the Durham family, Lynne Boyer, one of the four Durham children, said it was an “honor to be associated with a world class medical center, (but) providing funding for bricks and mortar is only part of the equation. A world-class center is created by the outstanding researchers inside the building.”
Dr. Maurer said that research would have the most impact on the state’s citizens – both in terms of medical breakthroughs and on the state’s economic development. Over the past 10 years, annual research funding has tripled, going from $25.1 million in 1996 to $80 million today. In all, UNMC’s research enterprise adds about 2,600 jobs in the Omaha area, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The second tower is needed, Dr. Maurer said, to sustain UNMC’s momentum in increasing its research funding. A key component of reaching that goal is recruiting scientists who already are funded through agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, said Tom Rosenquist, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research at UNMC.
“Certainly, a second research tower will be a significant tool in recruiting talented medical scientists, which is necessary if we are to reach our goals,” Dr. Rosenquist said. “The outstanding, 21st-century research environment provided by the Durham Research Center has been a key to the continuing increase in the size, scope and quality of UNMC research.
“The scientists in the DRC have won grants and contracts whose total dollar value already exceeds the cost of the building. The impact of these funds upon the economy of Omaha and Nebraska has been enormous, and the impact of this research upon the reputation of UNMC and the University of Nebraska is inestimable. The DRC is full and is operating at near capacity. Our completion of the second research tower will facilitate continued growth of UNMC research, to the continuing benefit of our community and state.”
Research activities within the second research tower will be multidisciplinary, grouped around UNMC priority areas, including cancer, biosecurity, cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal and liver diseases, developmental biology, genetics and molecular genetics, neurobiology, and organ transplantation biology.
Most of the 98 laboratories would be dedicated to research in the College of Medicine, the Eppley Cancer Center, the College of Pharmacy, and to support the operations of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory and the University of Nebraska Center for Biosecurity to advance Nebraska’s efforts to improve biosecurity to combat terrorism. Completion of the second research tower is expected in 2008.