<p>*It took four years of planning and another two-and-a-half years of construction, but the wait was well worth it: Florida State University is celebrating the grand opening of a new, state-of-the-art Chemical Sciences Laboratory that will offer expanded educational and research opportunities for decades of faculty members and students.</p>
<p>Located along Chieftan Way and overlooking the Scott Speicher Tennis Center on the campus's west side, the 168,000-square-foot, five-story building was the site of a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, May 2. FSU President T.K. Wetherell; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Chairman Joseph Schlenoff; and Nobel Laureate Harold Kroto, FSU's Francis Eppes Professor of Chemistry, were among those on hand to christen the dawn of a new era for the university's science community.</p>
<p>"Chemistry is well known as the 'central science': We bridge disciplines, foster collaborations and bring together scientists from other fields," Schlenoff said. "A chemist could be laboring to understand the workings of a cell, or creating new medicines or innovative materials. Some of us try to understand atomic nuclei, and others look at distant galaxies, searching for the spectroscopic signatures of certain elements or molecules.*</p>
<p>For more, see: FSU</a> News</p>