And that will happen for a long time to come, if you ask Professor Barry Walker, who does ultrafast laser science, working to understand the dynamics within atoms and molecules and how they interact with light. His students come away with skills in advanced optical technology and modern spectroscopy techniques, and find outstanding jobs in laser fusion, medical physics and in companies that use optical engineering, to name just a few. 

“We do not know all of what will be discovered,” Walker said, “but the architecture, engineering and quality of the construction will enable scientific measurements for the remainder of the 21st century.”

Connecting researchers

The building has many innovative features, and its design drew on much input from the principal investigators who steer the research. Perhaps that is one reason it has an air of something no blueprint can prescribe: delight.

That’s what Skye Brand, a second-year doctoral student from Felton, Delaware, expressed in remarks during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Brand is studying the development of chronic pain conditions. Her mentor is Austin Keeler, assistant professor of biological sciences.

“Pain is something that we all experience, yet chronic pain, or pain that persists beyond the normal healing process, remains one of the most poorly understood and difficult to treat conditions in modern medicine,” she said. “This is a deeply biological question, but one that’s inseparable from physics when we think about neural signaling and membrane dynamics, and from psychology when we consider how pain is perceived and processed.

“What I’ve learned as a scientist is that a system is never truly isolated. Nature does not recognize our departmental boundaries, and every scientific subject is highly dependent on ideas derived from multiple disciplines. The systems and processes that we study here at the University are interconnected, and the scientists investigating them should be as well. This is how we further scientific knowledge. This is how we further humanity.”

And that, she said, is what is most exciting about Building X.

“Building X provides proximity not only to campus, but to state-of-the-art microscopes, instruments and collaborators that we previously did not have easy access to,” she said.

Proximity can do unexpected things, as Tania Roth, associate dean for the natural sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, can attest. Her research is focused on behavioral epigenetics — especially how stress in early life can change behaviors that are passed along to future generations.

“The way I got into looking at DNA methylation, tagging of DNA in human tissue, was that one of my former graduate students struck up a conversation with a graduate student of Professor Mary Dozier, who is in clinical science and studies early adversity and kids,” Roth said. “Mary has developed a wonderful intervention to be able to change a kid’s behavior and outcomes through parenting behavior. Her student at that time, Julie Hoye, asked one of my students, Tiffany Doherty, if we could measure DNA methylation in children? The answer was: Absolutely. And that collaboration continues, where we try to translate a lot of what we’ve found in animals to humans. That came from students talking to one another.”

Roth has been involved in the development of Building X since the fire forced her and many other researchers into a diaspora across nine campus buildings.

“I love this building,” she said. She loved McKinly for different reasons — it was where she established her first lab in 2010.

But unlike McKinly, Building X is full of light, with lots of windows and gathering spaces for meetings, conversations and interviews. There are kid-friendly rooms, teaching labs and bays and bays of laboratory benches. Many researchers already have moved in, and labs and classes are under way in most parts of the 130,000-square-foot building.

But there is lots of room here for future hires and new ideas.

Building partnerships

“Building X will help us educate and prepare more than 1,000 students a year for careers in technology, life sciences and health care industries — all sectors that have a large and growing need for workers, leaders and entrepreneurs in Delaware and beyond,” Assanis said. “It will also enable exciting research partnerships within the state, which makes it a valuable shared asset for our entire community for generations to come.”

It is a testament, too, to the power of partnerships and support from state and federal officials, whose investments in research deliver solutions and innovations that would not otherwise be possible.

“Truly, the future of our state lives behind these walls,” said Wilmington Mayor John Carney, who was Delaware’s governor when the fire happened. Carney steered $41 million in federal stimulus money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) toward the project, citing its value for research, workforce development and the state’s economy.

Carney and Meyer credited President Joseph Biden and Delaware’s Congressional delegation — U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, former U.S. Sen. Tom Carper and then-U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester — for securing that ARPA funding.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who earned a master’s degree at UD, saluted the promotion of connection and collaboration, along with the economies of scale with researchers sharing cutting-edge machinery.

But most of all she appreciated the impact the work will have on people’s lives. Two areas of research which will be part of the Building X legacy are studies of Alzheimer’s disease and infertility. This research hits home in a special way for Blunt Rochester, whose grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s. And, she said, she now has a granddaughter because of in vitro fertilization, specialized treatments that can lead to pregnancy for those with infertility problems.

“This building is also representative of how we can take something terrible and turn it into something magical,” Meyer said, “how we can take something terrible — that threatens who we are, that threatens our education, the extraordinary education students get here at the University of Delaware, the extraordinary research that enables and empowers us and inspires us to think about a better, greater future than our past.

“There’s no greater example of the good the government can do through smart investing that’s going to win the future – not just for our community here at the University of Delaware, but for our state and our country. There’s no better example than this building.”

Walker would agree.

“To keep UD at the forefront of technology and research, you must bring in the best students and train them to a level of creativity to enable the next level of scientific discovery,” he said. “Building X was built with that goal in mind. Credit goes to UD administration and our government for making this investment and working with the researchers at UD to create a home — a brooder, if you will — for young scientific minds, the next generation of UD Blue Hens.”

Neuroscientist Josh Neunuebel, associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, said his students are excited to be in that new lab space.

“It’s an incredible place for them to be, analyzing all the data we collect and having all those fields of study all in one place,” he said. “It gives them a chance to interact. And it’s so bright and lively — everyone looks happy! We’ve done great things already and we’ll do even better things in the future.”

Engineering excellence

Some of the best research-related features of the building are not apparent to the casual visitor. But let a few physicists explain.

Building X has thick, concrete slab floors and acoustic dampening in the walls and doors to minimize mechanical and acoustic-induced vibrations in labs where sensitive and precision measurements are happening, said Edmund Nowak, a particle physicist who chairs UD’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

“Vibrations introduce errors in various measurements such as those involving delicate instruments, optical/laser setups, sensitive detectors of quantum phenomena, and tools for imaging of surfaces at the atomic scale,” Nowak said.

Vibrations can also produce electrical and magnetic interference and unwanted heating, he said. The building is designed with “equipment chases” that cordon off the building’s noisy mechanical operations.

“What makes the physics lab spaces in Building X of high quality is the combination of tight environmental (temperature and humidity) control; support spaces (such as equipment chases) to separate mechanically and electrically noisy equipment from sensitive experiments, separate electrical circuits for sensitive instruments and high power, noisy equipment; and robust electrical grounding and flooring material to mitigate electrostatic discharges that can destroy delicate nanodevices and structures,” he said.

The basement and the first floor are home to quantum science, physics, materials science and biophysics. The basement also houses an extension of UD’s Bio-Imaging Center, which provides tools for cell and tissue imaging. It has high-power laser labs and areas for the fabrication and characterization of advanced materials.

Quantum science is a growing discipline at UD, which joined the Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance in 2021 and has a new graduate program in Quantum Science and Engineering.

Quantum physics looks at the particles that make up matter — the tiniest bits, the stuff that makes up atoms, including protons, neutrons, electrons and photons. Physics looks quite different at this scale and things can behave quite differently than expected. Quantum physics looks at the way these particles behave and why.

“Careful and smart investment pays off; everyone wins,” Walker said. “The challenges of the environment, mastering technology, and making Delaware and America strong can only come about through hard work. In the area of science, Building X is the infrastructure that is part of that investment — providing opportunities to the citizens of Delaware for the best education and helping to produce an inspired scientific workforce.”

Putting connections to work

Building X connects the experts with each other and the tools they need. There are cryostats and rooms set up for tissue samples, radioactive materials, chemical reactions and other analyses. And there is a convenient sky bridge that connects the building to the next-door Center for Biomedical and Brain Imaging and its MRI facilities.

“To the University leadership that has tirelessly worked to make Building X possible — thank you,” Brand said. “And to my fellow students, researchers and creative minds — I challenge you to use this space to your full advantage.

“Let’s fill these classrooms with curiosity. Let’s make these halls noisy with ideas and with questions and deep conversations. Let’s push the boundaries of innovation together. Let’s cut this ribbon, open these doors and get to work.”