The University of Nebraska Board of Regents Friday approved the naming of the upcoming Lozier Center for Pharmacy Sciences and Education and Center for Drug Discovery.
Groundbreaking for the new building is set for Thursday, June 13, at 10:30 a.m., at its future location, east of the Michael F. Sorrell Center for Health Science Education along Emile Street, on the UNMC campus.
The building’s name is in recognition of major gifts from Ruth and Bill Scott and from The Lozier Foundation. The two-part name emphasizes the dual major functional components housed in the building, which will be home to both state-of-the-art education space and world-class research laboratories for the UNMC College of Pharmacy.
UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., hailed the Lozier Center for Pharmacy Sciences and Education and Center for Drug Discovery as yet another transformational project for the Medical Center, which in recent weeks also has seen the grand opening of the Stanley M. Truhlsen Eye Institute and the groundbreaking of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
The project’s donors agreed. The 85,000-square foot, $35 million building will be built entirely thanks to private donations, with no state funds used.
The name “Lozier Center for Pharmacy Sciences and Education” comes in recognition of the Lozier Foundation’s gift, and “Center for Drug Discovery” is in recognition of, and at the request of, Ruth and Bill Scott. Both major donors have long histories of investing in Nebraska’s future, including in the form of previous generous gifts to UNMC.
Construction is set to begin in February 2014, with a projected completion date of July 2015.