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Dedication Ceremony Announces A New Name, a New Life for Gross Hall

Former chemistry offices to house interdisciplinary units

Gross open house

In transforming Gross Hall into a home for many of Duke's interdisciplinary initiatives, a campus building has been given a new life. One of the most unloved buildings on campus is now a place of bright, open space emphasizing collaboration and connection.

President Richard H. Brodhead, Provost Peter Lange, Vice Provost Susan Roth and other campus leaders dedicated the renovated building Thursday, noting how the newly named Gross Hall for Interdisciplinary Innovation is an important moment in Duke's efforts to encourage teaching and research that connects scholarship to large social issues.

Built in the 1960s to house chemistry offices, the architecture, despite being known as "Gothic Modernism," never fit with most of the rest of the campus. The interior design was maze-like, drawn that way for safety reasons in case of chemical fires. Narrow windows allowed for little external light, and the heavy stone gave the building a closed, fortress feel.

"We thought about getting rid of the building (after chemistry left for French Family Science Center)," said Executive Vice President Tallman Trask III.  "But I'm not sure anything would could have torn it down."

Now, the interior emphasizes community, with significant common space, easily accessible offices and a Connection Bar, a social sciences help desk for faculty and students needing research advice.

The open design emphasizes a collaborative vision of university scholarship where faculty and students work to solve major social, economic and political issues in interdisciplinary teams.

The building is home to Bass Connections, the Social Sciences Research Institute (SSRI), The Duke Energy Initiative, the Center for Sustainability and Commerce and the Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, as well as the Department of Political Science.

The ribbon-cutting ended an afternoon of events celebrating the dedication of the renovated building.  Earlier, Bass Connections held an open house where faculty from the initiative's five themes discussed their projects (pictured above).

Kelly Brownell
Dean Kelly Brownell speaks on the value of public scholarship. 

Afterward, Sanford School Dean Kelly Brownell lectured on how university scholarship can effectively influence the public arena.

Traditionally, faculty scholarship is slow to be published, filled with jargon, poorly communicated and unresponsive to the needs of public officials, Brownell said. He added that not all university scholarship should be based on relevance to public policy. 

But Brownell, whose research has influenced debate on subjects from menu labels to the sale of sugar-filled sodas, said there are examples for policy-interested faculty to follow.

He cited in particular Al Sommer, a noted Johns Hopkins public health professor whose research in the 1970s and 1980s linked Vitamin A deficiency to multiple maladies from blindness to diarrhea.  Further research established that supplementing diets could prevent these diseases.

"Most scientists would stop there," Brownell said. "These were major discoveries.  But he went further and connected basic science to public health.  Working with world governments, he became an advocate for strategies to bring Vitamin A to vulnerable populations.  The results were massive declines in deaths and blindness.  The work prevented as many as a million deaths a year.

"If he had stopped at publications, would any of this have happened? Maybe yes, maybe no.  What is clear is it would have taken years longer."

Below: Provost Peter Lange cuts the ribbon officially opening the renovated Gross Hall for Interdisciplinary Innovation. Photos by Megan Morr/Duke University Photography

Gross ribbon cutting