The Carl A. Gerstacker Building – a new 31,000-square-foot addition to the College of Engineering – is one of two buildings that will help anchor a biomedical engineering complex on North Campus to accommodate the rapid growth of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) department, which has one of the largest graduate programs in the United States. It will also foster a flood of interaction and interdisciplinary work between BME and Materials Science and Engineering (another Gerstacker tenant) and the nearby Center for Ultrafast Optical Science.

Reflecting on the Gerstacker’s faculty offices and sixteen laboratories, Matt O’Donnell, Jerry W. and Carol L. Levin Professor of Engineering, and BME department chair, said, “We’ve never had a home before. People won’t have to ask, ‘Where’s the biomedical engineering department?’ anymore. And having the majority of our faculty in the same physical space facilitates research, interaction on curricula design – it facilitates every aspect of our work.”

The new building honors Carl A. Gerstacker, a 1938 Michigan Engineering alumnus and the former chairman of Dow Chemical Co. The Midland, Michigan-based Gerstacker Foundation partially funded the addition with a $5 million gift.

The second building, already fully funded by gifts from philanthropist Ann Lurie and The Whitaker Foundation, should be under construction by late 2003, according to Judith Pitney, executive director, Resource Planning and Management, College of Engineering. Pitney oversaw the design of the Gerstacker addition and will maintain a watch over its construction.

Stephen W. Director, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, said that, since 1996, there’s been “an explosion, not just in terms of financial commitments, but in the speed at which discoveries are being made in the field. Having a dedicated complex – the Biomedical Engineering quad – facilitates those discoveries in a way that wouldn't have happened before." 

 The new facility will house even more laboratory space and faculty offices for eight to 10 faculty members who’ll be hired in the coming two to three years. Faculty are developing an open design concept for the labs because the collaborative nature of biotechnology has evolved – these days, a single scientist working in isolation is an aberration.  

“Biomedical engineering is an increasingly multidisciplinary effort,” said Peter Katona, president of The Whitaker Foundation. “Michigan’s outstanding expertise across many different fields made it an ideal place for this investment. We’re looking forward to their great contributions to come.”

Such gifts enable the University to cement its leadership position nationally in the field of biomedical engineering, according to Director. “It’s the long-term commitment of individuals and institutions that really illustrates the impact of philanthropy in American society and allows us to increase our investment in discoveries that will fulfill the demands of future generations.”

Kim Roth is a freelance writer who has contributed to The Chicago Tribune, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Washington Post.