>>Purdue University marked its completion of the Gerald D.
and Edna E. Mann Hall with a May 15th dedication ceremony.
The 12.4 million dollar Interdisciplinary Research
Facility will house 100 researchers
from several Discovery Park Research Centers.
>>Since Discovery Park grew from an idea in 2001,
to a 350 million research complex today,
we've seen the results of what happens when researchers
from multiple disciplines are able
to work alongside each other in laboratories and offices.
Through new facilities like Mann Hall,
Discovery Park will pioneer new technologies, new discoveries,
new learning, new connections and new companies
that will help grow our economy.
>>Researchers at Mann Hall will be drawn from 5 centers,
focused on Health Care Engineering,
Advance Manufacturing, Cancer Detection and Treatment,
System Analysis, and Homeland Security.
>>This facility will help us centralize
and advance the tremendous research success we generated
from these key centers.The building will be home
to an all-star cast of university centers
and their researchers.
Our dedication ceremony celebrating the gift
from the Mann family marks another important chapter
as Purdue transforms itself into global research institution
for this new 21st Century.
>>For the Reichan Street Center for Health Care Engineering,
one of the center which will be located in that Hall,
the ability to easily conduct interdisplinary research is
at the core of everything it does.
>>Since the problems are very complex the Reichan Street
Center really serves as a forum to bring together the talents
of faculty that exist here at Purdue,
and provide a comprehensive study of, first,
what is our health care system today and how does it operate,
and secondly, where do we see opprotunities for improvments,
either by developing tools to deal with complexity
or identifying ways to redesign the existing healthcare system
to deal with this increasingly complex set of services
that we call health care.
>>Gerry and Edna Mann, who live in Indianapolis,
donated the initial 3 million dollars
to construct the 50 thousand square foot, 3-story building.
Gerry, who received his Masters Degree in Civil Engineering
from Purdue in 1956, founded and grew two companies,
including Mann Properties LLC., which has operations
at both Layfette and West Layfette.
The Lilly endowment also donated 2 millon dollars
to endow center directorships for two discovery park centers,
and also Mann Hall construction costs.
