The W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories — the last of two buildings to open in phase one of the Carolina Physical Science Complex and the last building ever to be constructed on Polk Place — was officially dedicated April 26, 2007, under fitting Carolina blue skies.
Caudill Labs is part of the $205 million Carolina Physical Science Complex, the largest construction project in the university’s history. Chapman Hall, the first building to open in the new science complex, was dedicated last fall.
Still, the celebratory day was about more than the grand opening of a building, Chancellor James Moeser reminded the crowd of faculty, staff and students at the dedication.
“This is not about a building, as beautiful as it is,” Moeser said. “Even though it’s a significant piece of architecture, we’re infinitely more proud of the people in this building and what it means for the future (of the university).”
The new building was named for Carolina alumni Lowry Caudill (’79 chemistry) and his wife Suzi ’80 (pharmacy), who live in Durham, N.C. The two met when they were undergraduates.
Holden Thorp, Kenan professor and chemistry department chair, said “sometimes you get lucky” when naming a new building. Thorp will become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences on July 1.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could name this building for a chemist who got his degree from our department?” Thorp said of his friend, Lowry Caudill. “How about someone from North Carolina? Maybe, possibly, we could even name it for someone who got a Ph.D. in chemistry? With someone on our faculty? Could we be lucky enough to find a scientist who redefined a major part of the chemical industry? And, while we’re at it, why not find the nicest guy in the world? We got all that and more.”
An analytical chemist, Lowry Caudill earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Carolina and his Ph.D. from Indiana University. At Indiana, he studied with professor Mark Wightman, a UNC graduate who is now back teaching at UNC. Caudill is the son of public school educators in Shelby, N.C., and was one of two scientists who in 1991 created Magellan Laboratories, a pharmaceutical development company based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. It had grown from two employees to 600 when it was sold to Cardinal Health in 2002. Caudill and Thorp taught the first scientific entrepreneurship course offered this spring as part of the minor in entrepreneurship in the College.
The Caudills’ major gift to the Carolina Physical Science Complex honors Royce Murray, Lowry Caudill’s undergraduate mentor, whose 43-year career as a chemistry professor will be recognized with the Royce Murray Quadrangle, the largest of the green spaces planned for the complex.
Caudill thanked Murray, Wightman and another Carolina connection — his high school chemistry teacher, Dick Hamrick ’66, also a UNC graduate.
“Think about the synergistic science that will occur because of this complex,” Caudill said. “We have an economic engine that’s essentially timeless. … This positions North Carolina to be a major leader in innovation.”
With approximately 120,000 square feet, Caudill Labs will provide research laboratory and office space for the department of chemistry, adding to existing space in Kenan Laboratories and Morehead Laboratories. Caudill Labs houses 52,000 square feet of chemistry research laboratories, 7,000 square feet of faculty offices and conference space and 2,000 square feet of “open” student space (plus basement and penthouse for mechanicals).
At the dedication, Thorp also recognized William F. Little, former chemistry department chair and Research Triangle Park co-founder, who’s being honored with his name on a brick plaza outside Caudill Labs. Thorp called the plaza “the nerve center for this bustling city of over 400 researchers.”
Caudill Labs replaces research and office space in the 80-year-old Venable Hall, which will be demolished. The second phase of the Carolina Physical Science Complex will include an addition to Sitterson Hall for computer science, scheduled for completion around 2008, and the replacement of Venable with two, new state-of-the-art buildings to be completed around 2010.
The Carolina Physical Science Complex will rely on $22 million in private gifts and $84 million from a higher education bond referendum approved by N.C. voters in 2000.
