£18m STEM Centre lights the way

Our new £18m new STEM building was lit up to celebrate its official opening.

Staff from across the University including the Faculty of Science and Health joined special guests to mark the opening of the building.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Anthony Forster said: “It creates a Science Square here at the heart of our Campus for the first time and also for the first time gives all six departments in our Faculty of Science and Health shared collaborative and social space.

“I’m excited to see how the building is being used already to nurture collaboration and looking forward to seeing how the sense of collaboration – which this building is specifically designed to foster - will bear fruits in the future.

“Our academic departments are embracing the opportunities this building offers. They are basing whole weeks of study around the new collaborative spaces now available to them. They want to use this building to get their students working together, co-creating and sharing ideas more than ever before.”

Special guests included Professor John Dowden,  our very first student back in 1963 who went on to become a lecturer in Mathematics at Essex, later a head of department and eventually one of our Emeritus Professors.

He was joined by representatives from construction company Keir who worked incredibly closely with our in-house project team to deliver the complex project.

Essex is a growing university with an ambitious research agenda so we are very grateful to the Government for contributing £5m to supporting this £18m project which provides exceptional new facilities for our science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students and staff.

The building has achieved a Very Good BREEAM sustainability rating and is designed to be as inclusive as possible including step-free access from Square 2 and from under podia.