Science, math, and computer aficionados proudly showed off their new digs when the forty-million dollar Math and Science Center was dedicated in a star-studded October ceremony.

Emory celebrities made appearances, from President William M. Chace to Professor Ray DuVarney, chair of physics and washtub player in the department’s three-man band, but the true stars of the show could be viewed through the research-grade rooftop telescope and twinkled on the curved ceiling of the center’s sixty-seat planetarium.

“Can we come here over lunch just to chill out?” asked one visitor, leaning back in her plush planetarium seat to watch the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere.

The Math and Science Center sits between the Boisfeuillet Jones Center and Sanford S. Atwood Chemistry Center on Emory’s main campus. The center houses the departments of physics, mathematics and computer science, and environmental studies, a configuration designed to encourage collaboration among the disciplines–and more convenience for students.

“My classes used to be spread out all over campus,” says College senior Betsy Stovall, a math major studying in the Mathematics and Science Center library. “Now they’re consolidated, mostly in this building.”

Divided into east, west, and north wings, the striking, 138,000-square-foot facility is backed by a wooded lot and wraps around an atrium with native landscaping. The architecture echoes that of Henry Hornbostel’s original Beaux Arts aesthetic for Emory’s campus, with red-tiled roof and generous windows to let in natural light. Atlanta firm Cooper Carry received a 2002 American Institute of Architects Georgia award of merit for the building’s design.

“Science,” said Chace at the dedication, “does not have to be done in smelly, dark, unattractive buildings. Housing smart people should require a smart building.”

Indeed, the Math and Science Center rises to the challenge of fully supporting its tenants–it is high-tech, resourceful, expansive, and full of surprises. The center was built using the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) principles, as was the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building, which last year became the first LEED-certified facility in the Southeast.

Motion sensors in most rooms reduce air conditioning and lighting energy use when a room is unoccupied. Seven showers and rack parking are available for bicycle commuters. Recycling stations have been placed on each floor. A storm-water retention vault catches runoff and uses it for irrigation, and a closed-loop cooling system is expected to save 2.8 million gallons of water per year.

The state-of-the-art planetarium and five-foot-long, twenty-four-inch- diameter Zeiss reflecting telescope and observatory will allow the physics department to offer degrees in astrophysics and astronomy for the first time.

Cory Donofrio ’02C, a graduate of the department who now teaches labs, explained that much of an astronomer’s work is actually done on computers. To examine the horsehead nebula in the constellation Orion, for instance, he would direct the cursor on the computer monitor to the displayed sky map, click, and the automated guidance system (calibrated by using the Global Positioning System) would point the reflecting telescope toward the target. The image would be captured by digital camera and appear on the computer screen.

To allow students hands-on experience, there are ten open-air stations for small telescopes on the rooftop plaza.

Leaving distant galaxies to colleagues, environmental studies faculty examine Earth’s own flora, fauna, and terra firma, and the interplay of ecological and social issues.

In the Petrology Research Laboratory, shelves are filled with fragments of rocks, minerals, meteorites, and fossils. With an electron microscope, geologist William B. Size, associate professor of environmental studies, recently helped curators identify minerals and stones in the Michael C. Carlos Museum’s Ancient Americas collection.

An outdoor plaza and rooftop laboratories make use of all available space for environmental research. Bird feeders glimpsed outside a window seem decorative, but are actually part of a study of house finches battling an infectious eye disease. There’s also a solar-powered meteorological station.

Even the center’s more traditional classrooms boast high-tech lecterns with disc and video players, document cameras, video screens and projectors that hang from the ceiling, and student desks wired for laptops.

“For the first time in the history of our department, we have spaces designed specifically for our teaching and research needs, with all the necessary supporting technology,” says mathematics and computer science chair Dwight Duffus.

In this impressive new home for scientific exploration, says Senior Associate Dean of Emory College Rosemary M. Magee ’82G, “imaginations triumph over complexity.” –M.J.L.