South Texas Research Facility will spark scientific discovery, serve as an economic engine for San Antonio
WHAT: Dedication of the new South Texas Research Facility (STRF), a visually striking $150 million building that will become a center of scientific discovery and collaboration.
The gleaming three-story building extends nearly two-tenths of a mile – about the length of three football fields – and gently curves along Floyd Curl Drive. Laboratories have an airy, open design to foster interaction among researchers, and the STRF’s location between the two main clinical buildings of the UT Health Science Center will further promote “translational research,” where discoveries in the laboratory quickly benefit patients while clinicians’ observations spark new lines of inquiry.
Reporters and photographers are invited to attend the ceremony outside the STRF, which will conclude with Chairman Wm. Eugene “Gene” Powell of The University of Texas System Board of Regents dedicating the building as music plays, banners unfurl and confetti cannons fire.
WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, at 11 a.m.
WHERE: Outside the South Texas Research Facility (STRF), 8403 Floyd Curl Drive in the South Texas Medical Center.
WHO: Speakers at the ceremony will include:
- William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, president of the UT Health Science Center
- Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., chancellor of The University of Texas System
- Texas House Speaker Joe Straus
- State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte
- Chairman Wm. Eugene “Gene” Powell of The University of Texas System Board of Regents
NOTES: The speaking program begins at 11 a.m. The ceremony’s best visuals will come at its conclusion, when the confetti cannons fire and the banners unfurl. (This will occur at approximately 11:35 a.m.; photographers who want to capture this are advised to be in place earlier.)
After the ceremony, reporters will be able to get one-on-one interviews with UT Health Science Center leadership and researchers. (Spanish interviews are available.) External Affairs staff will be on hand to take journalists inside the building to get photographs of facilities including laboratories, tissue culture rooms and an optical imaging center.
The STRF was designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, and Vaughn Construction was the contractor.
It will not only be home to scientific discovery, but also an economic engine for the city of San Antonio, beginning with recruiting for 15 to 20 new lab teams who will research neuroscience, cancer, healthy aging, diabetes and airway disease.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving federal funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled $228 million in fiscal year 2010. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $744 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.