May 15, 2007

Purdue dedicates $12.4 million Mann Hall in Discovery Park

Mann Hall Dedication
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A dedication ceremony took place at Mann Hall, 203 S. Intramural Drive, on the southwest edge of campus.

Mann Hall will provide offices for 100 researchers and staff from the several centers, including e-Enterprise Center, Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, Oncological Sciences Center and the Purdue Homeland Security Institute.

"This facility in Discovery Park will help us centralize and advance the tremendous research success we've generated from these key centers," said Purdue President Martin C. Jischke. "This building will be home to an all-star cast of centers and their researchers. The dedication ceremony celebrating the gift from the Mann family marks another important chapter as Purdue reinvents itself as a global research institution for the 21st century."

Gerald "Jerry" Mann and his wife, Edna, donated the initial $3 million for constructing the 50,000-square-foot, three-story building next to the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and Bindley Bioscience Center. Lilly Endowment gave $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.

"Purdue gave me the educational foundation necessary to make a contribution to the field of engineering," Gerald Mann said. "It's been exciting to see the building take shape, brick by brick. And it will be exciting to know that our family played a role in positioning Purdue, through Discovery Park, as a global leader for interdisciplinary research.

"This is where we will seed and nurture research, positioning it for the next critical step to go into the marketplace where it can touch and improve people's lives."

A Newport, N.C., native, Gerald Mann received his

Gerald and Edna Mann
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master's degree in civil engineering from Purdue in 1956. 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 revenue 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. The Manns live in Indianapolis and Florida.

Edna Mann is from Barbourville, Ky., and attended Union College in her hometown, where she majored in business and applied psychology. The Manns' three children also attended Purdue. She said the Manns had contributed to scholarships at Purdue over the years, but they we wanted to do something even more substantial.

"Purdue was very good to us, and we're very happy that we have remained connected to one of the greatest universities in the nation," she said. "We're also thrilled to be a part of Discovery Park, which we believe has already helped raise Purdue to the next level. This new building will help stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit that is alive and well at Purdue through Discovery Park."

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 at Purdue.

The $15 million Bindley Bioscience Center and $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.

Joseph Pekny, director of the e-Enterprise Center and founding director of the Regenstrief Center, said Mann Hall's opening marks another milestone in the development of Discovery Park and the role it is already playing in driving campus research and boosting Indiana's economy.

Gerald D. and Edna E. Mann Hall
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"Mann Hall greatly increases the e-Enterprise Center's visibility as a critical part of Discovery Park's mission in learning, discovery and engagement," said Pekny, a chemical engineering professor at Purdue. "Discovery Park has grown from an idea into a driver of the economy. This facility will help several centers work in tandem to address research and engagement issues in health-care engineering, homeland security, cancer care, and a host of informatics opportunities to solve grand challenges in our world today."

Designed by the Indianapolis architectural firm Brenner Design, the key centers at Mann Hall include:

* Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering: The Regenstrief Foundation in Indianapolis in 2005 provided $1 million annually for three years to launch the center. Since then, the Regenstrief Center (pronounced REE-gen-streef) has generated more than $20 million in sponsored research, strategic partner support and endowment funding.

The center, which has had its primary offices in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and Vistech in the Purdue Research Park since its launch, is bringing together faculty from areas such as engineering, sociology, health communication and kinesiology, pharmacy, nursing, health sciences, statistics, computer science, technology, agriculture, consumer sciences and veterinary medicine.

"Mann Hall cements the Regenstrief Center's position at Discovery Park, facilitating interdisciplinary research that's focused on delivering health care to consumers more efficiently and effectively," said center director Steven Witz, the St. Vincent Health Chair of Healthcare Engineering. "Our researchers are applying process-engineering principles, following the flow of information, communication, funds and materials through the system to achieve better results and efficiency."

* Center for Advanced Manufacturing: This center, which has been based in the A.A. Potter Engineering Center on campus since it was launched in spring 2004, supports research to develop and improve manufacturing processes, productivity and materials in conjunction with Indiana manufacturers. Its primary mission is to boost the largest sector of Indiana's economy into a leading role in the global marketplace.

"Joining Purdue's deep resources in manufacturing with Indiana's manufacturers is paying economic dividends for the state," said John Sullivan, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and the Ball Brothers Endowed Director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing. "Purdue has a long history of cutting-edge research in manufacturing, and we want to continue to enhance this work and transfer these advances to manufacturers in Indiana, across the Midwest and nationally. By centralizing our research at Mann Hall, we will be able to take these advancements to the next level."

* Oncological Sciences Center: Launched in July 2005, this center is integrating broad areas of the research communities in life sciences, liberal arts, engineering, pharmacy and chemical sciences to focus on wider aspects of the cancer problem. For two years, the center's offices have been split between the Bindley Bioscience Center and Hansen Life Sciences Building.

As the Discovery Park arm of the existing Purdue Cancer Center, the Oncological Sciences Center is focused on researching the discovery of new cancer drugs and diagnostic tools, new ways for these drugs to attack cancer cells, and the examination and visualization of cancer cell proteins to help these drugs target cancer cells more effectively.

"The Oncological Sciences Center is bringing together life scientists, engineers, pharmacists, and experts in communication and human behavior to assault the cancer problem," said Marietta Harrison, the center's interim director and associate director of the Purdue Cancer Center. "Working alongside researchers in Mann Hall and a minute's walk to life sciences and nanotechnology laboratories at the Bindley Bioscience Center and Birck Nanotechnology Center, we now have the means to exploit Purdue's considerable strength in engineering to achieve our collective national goal of eliminating cancer as a cause of suffering and death."

* Purdue Homeland Security Institute: The institute will move from the Krannert Building, where it has been since it was established in March 2004. Its research focuses on accelerating the creation, validation, and implementation of knowledge and tools for sustainable homeland security.

The institute's core research units are the Center for Computational Homeland Security; Center for Sensing Science and Technology; Center for Security of Large Scale Systems; and the Center for Military and Law Enforcement Technology, Tactics and Training.

The Purdue Homeland Security Institute is led by Sandy Amass, professor of veterinary clinical sciences and director of the National Biosecurity Resource Center for Animal Health Emergencies, and managing director Tim Collins.

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.

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, (765) 427-3009 (cell), pfiorini@purdue.edu

Sources: Martin C. Jischke, (765) 494-9708

Gerald and Edna Mann, (317) 496-0535, (317) 849-3626

Joe Pekny, (765) 497-9969, pekny@purdue.edu

John Sullivan, (765) 494-1279, john.p.sullivan.1@purdue.edu

Marietta Harrison, (765) 494-1442, harrisom@purdue.edu

Sandy Amass, (765) 494-8052, amasss@purdue.edu

Tim Collins, (765) 494-9794, tfcollins@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu  

Note to Journalists: Journalists who want more information about research by Discovery Park centers that will be based at Mann Hall can contact Phillip Fiorini, Purdue News Service, 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:
An excited Gerald “Jerry�? Mann shouts "Hail Purdue," while his wife, Edna, looks on during a dedication ceremony Tuesday (May 15) for the $12.4 million Gerald D. and Edna E. Mann Hall. The Manns donated the initial $3 million to construct the 50,000-square-foot, three-story building that is now home to 100 faculty, researchers and staff in Purdue’s Discovery Park. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)

PHOTO CAPTION:
Gerald "Jerry" Mann and his wife, Edna, stand on the stairwell of; the new Gerald D. and Edna E. Mann Hall, which will be home to centers researching health care, advanced manufacturing, cancer, systems analysis, homeland security and other disciplines in Discovery Park. (Discovery Park photo/Barbara Doremire)

PHOTO CAPTION:
Gerald D. and Edna E. Mann Hall, a $12.4 million addition to Purdue's facilities in Discovery Park, will provide laboratories and 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)

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