$15M gift from Austin E. Knowlton Foundation to help transform Ohio State engineering campus

Continuing its namesake’s commitment to schooling and to his alma mater, the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation has donated $15 million to finalize structure and development of The Ohio Point out University’s Biomedical and Resources Engineering Complex (BMEC). Formerly, Knowlton and the basis he founded have generously supported architecture and aviation applications at Ohio State.

“Dutch Knowlton’s legacy is permanently cemented on the Ohio Point out campus – not just in the brick and mortar of this transformational and state-of-the-art complex, but also in the ethos of generosity he has encouraged, as a result of the Knowlton Foundation and its critical function,” Ohio State President Kristina M. Johnson stated. “Future generations of students will advantage from his eyesight and philanthropy, which will each improve the Faculty of Engineering’s highly ranked academic programs and push financial development throughout our city and condition.”

The present will guidance construction of the second and final phase of BMEC, located on the corner of Woodruff Avenue and College Road. BMEC’s to start with stage, named Mars G. Fontana Laboratories, was accomplished in the summer time of 2020. Bringing with each other the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Products Science and Engineering, Fontana Labs showcases teaching and analysis occurring in the coronary heart of Ohio State’s Columbus campus, though inspiring lifetime-conserving, unprecedented advancements in the fast increasing industry of biomaterials.

Referred to as “The Gateway to Engineering,” the second period of BMEC will reinvent how Ohio State inspires and educates upcoming Buckeye engineers. By the summer season of 2025, students and faculty will commence shifting into the modernized facility, completing the most sizeable cash investments in instructing, mastering and discovery in the Faculty of Engineering’s heritage.

“I think Mr. Knowlton would be beyond thrilled to see how his legacy by means of the foundation is impacting and will continue to influence the pupils and faculty at his alma mater,” explained alumnus John Lindberg, president of the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation. “Since Mr. Knowlton commenced the basis all through his lifetime in 1981, our mission has been to encourage and progress greater schooling in the United States through immediate grants and contributions to experienced schools and universities.”

The $90 million Gateway to Engineering undertaking, funded by state and college expenditure in addition to philanthropy, involves the demolition of 68-yr-outdated Watts Hall prior to the design of a new facility that will attach to a renovated structure, formerly acknowledged as MacQuigg Laboratories. In total, this second period of BMEC will be a 136,000-square-foot facility featuring fashionable, effective spaces for 21st-century instructing and exploration. Blended with Fontana Labs, the complete BMEC footprint will be 260,000 sq. toes.

In addition to getting residence to the departments of Resources Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, stage two will deliver STEM training-concentrated teaching labs, a new School of Engineering management suite and committed area for the Office of Electrical Engineering’s resources investigate team. The Office of Engineering Instruction and its very first-yr engineering lessons also will shift to the new Gateway to Engineering facility, providing a model for the classroom of the long run.

“From architecture to aviation to engineering, the Knowlton Foundation’s investments are literal and figurative pillars of the experiential education our students delight in,” stated University of Engineering Dean Ayanna Howard. “Our students’ existing and long run successes bear testament to Dutch Knowlton’s enthusiasm for schooling and his beloved alma mater.”

Dutch Knowlton acquired his architectural engineering diploma from Ohio Condition in 1931. He was the owner and chairman of the Knowlton Development Organization, which began in Bellefontaine, Ohio, in 1937 and whose predecessors dated back to 1906. His business was liable for over 600 significant building initiatives through Ohio and the Midwest, like school properties, hospitals and libraries.

In 1994, Knowlton pledged $16.2 million to Ohio State to support the development and continued excellence of its architecture application. The Austin E. Knowlton University of Architecture stays one of the country’s most admired institutions and Knowlton Hall has grow to be a signature making on Ohio State’s campus.

In 2015, the Knowlton Foundation donated $10 million to up grade aviation education and learning facilities and the terminal at The Ohio Point out College Airport. The Austin E. Knowlton Aviation Finding out Middle and Government Terminal enabled the university to satisfy the educational desires of 500-additionally Ohio State college students, investigation requires of the state and nation, and company anticipations of regional enterprises and pilots.

In addition to present day classrooms and analysis environments, the Gateway to Engineering facility will consist of a two-ground makerspace for learners to carry suggestions to existence as perfectly as rooms devoted to K-12 STEM outreach programming.

Senior biomedical engineering college student Aneesh Zutshi has liked Fontana Labs, the 1st stage of BMEC, since it opened. He credits it with propelling his analysis, serving to him cultivate friendships and affording him additional arms-on studying possibilities.

When Zutshi will graduate in advance of the next section is finish, he is pleased for the more youthful Buckeye engineers subsequent him.

“Their first-12 months engineering courses remaining positioned close to the long run makerspaces will offer them early publicity to upper class design and style projects,” he reported. “I know they will be enthusiastic to see these prototypes, and it will spark their individual curiosity for their long run initiatives.”

Started in 1981, the nonprofit Austin E. Knowlton Foundation seeks to endorse and advance better instruction in the United States and to give direct grants and contributions to experienced faculties and universities. The foundation’s prosperous historical past with Ohio Point out has spurred innovation and excellence in educational packages, paving the way for creativity and discovery amongst diverse disciplines.