May 1, 2007
Purdue will dedicate fourth building in Discovery Park
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - |
Mann Hall will provide offices for researchers and staff from the several Discovery Park centers including e-Enterprise Center, Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, Oncological Sciences Center and the Purdue Homeland Security Institute.
"Mann Hall will centralize research by Purdue faculty, staff and students in key areas such as heath-care engineering, advanced manufacturing, cancer care, homeland security, systems analysis and others," said Alan Rebar, executive director of Discovery Park. "This building marks an important step for Purdue as Discovery Park provides another new home where our faculty and researchers can capitalize on an interdisciplinary approach to solve major global challenges."
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Purdue President Martin C. Jischke and Rebar will make remarks at the dedication, which starts at 1:30 p.m. The Manns also will speak during the ceremony at Mann Hall, which is located on the southwest edge of campus at 203 S. Intramural Drive. A reception and tour will follow at 2 p.m.
Gerald "Jerry" Mann and his wife, Edna, of Indianapolis donated the initial $3 million to construct the 50,000-square-foot, two-story building next to the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and the Bindley Bioscience Center.
Lilly Endowment matched $1 million of the Mann gift with another $2 million to create two endowed positions: a directorship for the e-Enterprise Center, and the Gerald and Edna Mann director of the Bindley Bioscience Center. The balance went to the building fund.
Other collaborating centers and activities moving into Mann Hall include the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory, Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing, Indiana Space Grant Consortium, Pharmaceutical Technology and Education Center, Purdue Research and Education Center for Information Sciences and Engineering, and the Shape and Search Sciences Laboratory.
The Healthcare Technical Assistance Program and graduate students in the doctorate of nursing practice program also will have offices in the new Discovery Park building.
Mann Hall becomes the fourth completed building in Discovery Park, which has grown from a $5 million investment by the state of Indiana in a nanotechnology center five years ago into a $350 million complex for interdisciplinary research.
The $15 million Bindley Bioscience Center and the $58 million Birck Nanotechnology Center were dedicated in October 2005, joining the $7 million Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, the park's first building that opened in 2004. A new home for the Discovery Learning Center is next in the park's building plans.
A Newport, N.C., native, Gerald Mann received his master's degree in civil engineering from Purdue in 1956. After college, with the assistance of Edna as his financial and management adviser, he started American Testing and Engineering Corp., which grew to 1,500 employees in 52 offices. Company revenues reached $120 million in 1990.
He also is founder and senior partner at Mann Properties LLC, a commercial and residential real estate firm and family business. The 37-year-old company, which is now run by his children, has operations in North Carolina and Indiana, including projects in Lafayette and West Lafayette.Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, (765) 427-3009 (cell), pfiorini@purdue.edu
Sources: Alan Rebar, (765) 496-6625, rebar@purdue.edu
Gerald and Edna Mann, (317) 496-0535, (317) 849-3626
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: Journalists who more information about research by Discovery Park centers that will be based at Mann Hall can contact Phillip Fiorini at (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu . B-roll and video also will be available containing research footage from Discovery Park and relevant centers in Mann Hall.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Gerald D. and Edna E. Mann Hall, a $12.4 million addition to Purdue's facilities in Discovery Park, will provide offices for 100 researchers and staff in the areas of health-care engineering, advanced manufacturing, cancer care, homeland security and other areas. A dedication ceremony is planned at the building on May 15. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)
Publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2007/mann-hall-ext.jpg
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