An illuminating celebration to a brighter, greener future

“Three … two … one,” cheered members of the Penn community as alumnus P. Roy Vagelos, his wife, Diana T. Vagelos, and Interim President J. Larry Jameson pressed a button that ignited a display of patterned lights onto the exterior facade of the University’s newest building: the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology.

Jameson expressed his gratitude to the Vagelos family, emphasizing that Benjamin Franklin, the University’s founder, would take pride in seeing science harnessed for the benefit of society.

“This building is going to be an epicenter where we bring people together from various fields with expertise to address what feels like an existential crisis, not only to those of us in this room, but for the next generation,” said Jameson. “We’re going to tackle this one with passion and with the kind of tools that [P. Roy and Diana T. Vagelos] inspired us to develop in interdisciplinary programs and problem solving.”

He extended gratitude to the Vagelos family for their transformative support. Their vision, Jameson noted, strengthens Penn’s leadership in climate science and enables the pursuit of technologies poised to drive impactful discoveries. This is one way Penn is leading on a great challenge of our time, part of In Principle and Practice, the University’s strategic vision.

“You thank us, but we thank you, because this is the best investment that we can make, and that is to invest in people who are smarter than we are and will live longer—I’m 95, by the way,” chuckled P. Roy Vagelos, a graduate of the School of Arts & Sciences (SAS). He highlighted how the people in the laboratory will accomplish “tons more things than Diana and I could have done on our own.”

“And so, we want to thank all of you here and say that the reason we’re here is because of you. You have the talent, you have the will, you have the know-how to make inventions and improve lives and society going forward. And there’s nothing better that we can do.”

In welcoming the guests who played an instrumental role in shaping Vagelos Laboratory, Deputy Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences Jeffrey Kallberg expressed gratitude to the architects, Behnisch Architekten, along with the engineers and builders, University staff, faculty, administration partners, and the Vageloses.

“Roy and Diana have been with us throughout this journey, sharing our commitment to this critical need, keeping an eye on the larger vision, and asking us: What will it take to get there?” said Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics and associate dean for the natural sciences Mark Trodden.

“Their commitment to energy science at Penn began in 2011 with a gift to establish an undergraduate dual degree program based in Arts & Sciences and [Penn] Engineering—the program now known as VIPER,” Trodden said.

A home for interdisciplinary research

Located at 3200 Walnut St., the $173 million cutting-edge facility is designed to propel interdisciplinary research, and also house the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER), an undergraduate dual-degree program run jointly by the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS).

Speaking to the diverse research that will be conducted in the Vagelos Laboratory, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering Vijay Kumar pointed to IoT4Ag, a National Science Foundation Center on Precision Agriculture.

“This important work will happen right here within the second-floor Chen Family Laboratory. And right down the hall,” added Kumar, “the Linda Ye and Robin Ren Core Instrumentation Facility will house instrumentation and technology that can be found nowhere else in our region. Using high-powered spectroscopy, researchers can study materials at the atomic scale—vital to inventing the next generation of batteries, solar cells and energy storage devices.”

Spanning 112,500 square feet, the state-of-the-art facility boasts adaptable laboratory spaces to support the dynamic needs of pioneering research.

“As some of you may know, this work, the work that will happen here is close to my heart, to both my personal and professional lives,” remarked Ramanan Raghavendran, chair of the Board of Trustees, who received one of his two undergraduate degrees from Penn Engineering, and a master’s degree from the School of Arts & Sciences. “The building is symbolic of Penn’s commitment to addressing—head on—one of the critical challenges of our time, the climate crisis.”

Raghavendran drew the crowd’s attention to the building’s sun shades, prominent exterior features designed to enhance sustainability, which, he noted, “are just the most visible of the many features are helping this building achieve such high standards for sustainability.”

He said that by focusing on sustainable solutions and innovative design approaches, the energy requirements of this building are 40% less than what is typically expected for a research facility at such scale.

“‘Wow. Just wow.’ That’s actually what I say every time when I walk into this building,” said faculty director of the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology (VIEST) and Vagelos Professor of Energy Research Karen Goldberg.
 
VIEST is the scientific home base for faculty from SAS and SEAS who are exploring new frontiers in energy research. In 2016, a gift from the Vageloses made it possible to launch the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology, positioning Penn as one of the premier energy centers in the nation. Earlier this year, a separate gift from the Vageloses established a permanent endowment for the institute.

Goldberg highlighted how features like connecting staircases, shared instrumentation labs, open laboratories, meeting rooms, and informal gathering spaces were thoughtfully designed from the start to foster interaction and collaboration.

“The labs themselves were designed to be inclusive and fit everyone, no matter what size or physical limitation. I believe that this is actually the first science building in the country to consider the different heights and our reaches of people in its design. This is critical, because to address this enormous threat to our planet, we really need a wide diversity of thought, experience, and expertise. We need to involve everyone.”

In closing, Diana T. Vagelos thanked those in attendance and wished everyone involved in the important work of climate and energy science “much good luck.”