Wellesley College, the highly rated liberal arts education for women in suburban Boston, recently opened its new Science Complex. The nearly 100,000-square-foot facility was the most significant construction project in Wellesley College’s history.
The design of the facility reimagines the new Science Complex as a “village” for collaboration and exchange among departments and fields of expertise. For example, new interdisciplinary laboratory facilities will allow faculty and students from Wellesley’s psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive and linguistic sciences programs to conduct cutting-edge research across all three disciplines. A central spine, called the Chao Innovation Hub, connects the various buildings and is filled with breakout areas and windows that reveal the laboratory spaces in the surrounding buildings, putting science on display. As an inviting space for collaboration and exchange, the Science Complex is designed to bring together faculty and students from different departments to engage with one another.
Five of the seven most popular majors at Wellesley are currently in STEM fields. Wellesley’s STEM faculty are awarded more federal funding than any other liberal arts college without a graduate program. These funds enable students to participate at the forefront of many different fields of research, from quantum mechanics to biotechnology.
“Wellesley College is proud of our record educating the highest numbers of women who go on to receive Ph.D.s in STEM fields among our liberal arts peers,” stated Paula A. Johnson, president of Wellesley College. “The new Science Complex will allow us to strengthen our commitment to educating the next generation of inclusive STEM leaders by creating a collaborative hub for teaching and research where students, faculty, and staff can discover and learn together.”