Media recently got a preview of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. George Austin, project manager for the $150 million dollar center, showed media around the showpiece building where important discoveries on human health will be made. The building incorporates space on three levels, for use by researchers with the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the Morgridge Institute for Discovery.
The centerpiece of the building is the Town Center, a space for the public to find out about the science being explored. The Town Center will feature three food venues, a variety of hands on displays, and a Mezozoic garden featuring plants that would have been found during the dinosaur era. John Wiley, the former UW chancellor who’s now interim director of the Discovery Institutes, predicts the Town Center will prove just as popular a destination for students and the community as Memorial Union’s Terrace and Rathskeller.
Researchers at the Discovery Institutes will focus on making discoveries in human health in five specific areas of research: home health care delivery, tissue engineering, epigenetics, computer optimization and systems biology. The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building is on schedule for a December 2nd grand opening.