New Building Named for Trustee

The newest building on campus, a 100,000-square-foot future home of the biomedical engineering and optics departments, is nearing completion, and its funding was enhanced by a gift of $10 million from Trustee Robert Goergen ’60.

The $37.7 million building, which will be named for Goergen, will include extensive research facilities, undergraduate and graduate teaching labs, state-of-the-art demonstration halls, a 155-seat lecture hall, and the new Center for Institute Ventures.

“I see my gift for the biomedical engineering–optics building as a way to improve the scholarship, research, and general experience of Rochester students and faculty in a tangible way,” Goergen says. “The building will have an impact beyond bricks and mortar. It will be a wonderful hub of activity for a field of growing importance that will transform lives—not only on campus, but around the world.”

Goergen, a University Trustee since 1982, also has donated $5 million toward the extensive renovation of the University’s athletic center (named for Goergen in 2000) and funds to establish and support the Goergen Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, awarded annually since 1997.