Photo by Bill Sublette.

Wilsdorf Hall

Three years after Gregory H. Olsen (MSE ’71) used a backhoe to break ground and dig the first shovelful of dirt in an undeveloped area near Engineer’s Way, the 99,000-square-foot, five-story Wilsdorf Hall stands ready to welcome researchers who will help carry the University of Virginia forward as a leader in research and discovery.

Wilsdorf Hall houses state-of-the-art laboratories, large classrooms/laboratory areas for undergraduate and graduate students, the latest computational facilities, conference rooms and a community café. The building is physically connected to the chemical engineering and materials science and engineering buildings and the chemistry library.

“Wilsdorf Hall is a major step forward in Virginia’s commitment to best-in-class science and engineering education, built on the promise of collaborative research that will yield breakthrough discoveries for the global marketplace,” said Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra.

During its $3 billion Capital Campaign, which was announced publicly in September and is slated to run through 2011, U.Va. has set a goal of $268 million for new laboratories and other research facilities.

“In the Capital Campaign now under way, we intend to transform our capacities for scientific research and to position the University as an international leader among research institutions, with core strengths in science and engineering,” University President John T. Casteen III said. “Wilsdorf Hall will be a tremendous asset to us as we work toward that goal.”

The building was designed by Charlottesville architectural firm VMDO Architects PC, in consultation with the professors who will conduct research in the building. Constructed by Barton Malow Company, it was designed with special consideration for the research that will occur there.

The building is extraordinary in many ways, according to architect Terry Forbes. Of the five floors in the building, two are below ground; the lowest floor is designed to suppress vibrations in order to allow sensitive equipment on that floor to perform research functions at the nanoscale level. Electric power comes into the building through an isolated switching room before it is distributed in the building, keeping laboratory equipment shielded from the electrical and magnetic fields. There is an air-handling isolation system, which traps and contains chemicals, and a delivery system with multiple functions weaves overhead through the labs.

“Wilsdorf Hall is one of only a handful of buildings that have ever been designed this way,” Forbes said.

Photo by Morgan Estabrook.

University Professor Emerita Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf and Gregory H. Olsen (MSE ’71) share a moment together at the dedication of Wilsdorf Hall.

“This building will allow research in characterization and fabrication at the atomic level that hasn’t been possible due to the need for mechanical and electrical isolation and stabilization,” said James H. Aylor, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. “This new environment and the research it allows will foster both formal and informal interdisciplinary collaborations across the Engineering School and throughout the entire University.”

Occupants of the building include interdisciplinary faculty within the Engineering School who share a focus on nanotechnology and on materials that enable new technologies and solve a wide range of societal problems. The concept of grouping researchers in adjacent laboratories with a related research purpose stimulates interaction among occupants of the building — researchers who tailor the behavior of materials through developing a fundamental understanding of the nature of materials from the quantum and nanoscopic sizes through application scales. Nanoscale characterization and computational modeling are key elements of this next generation of science.

The construction of Wilsdorf Hall was funded with a $15 million gift from Olsen in honor of two faculty members: the late Professor Heinz G. F. Wilsdorf, who was the first chair of the Department of Materials Science (now the Department of Materials Science and Engineering), and Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, University Professor of Applied Science (Emeritus). Olsen founded EPITAXX in 1984 and Sensors Unlimited Inc. in 1991, and last year he was the third private citizen to travel to the International Space Station.

“Greg Olsen’s gift is a wonderful tribute to the Wilsdorfs and also a testament to the enduring impact of teaching and mentoring,” President Casteen said. “Our faculty members educate women and men who go on to exceptional achievement in their professional lives, and when those women and men give back to the University, they create opportunities for new generations of teachers and students to sustain excellence.”

A suite of laboratories and the connector between Wilsdorf Hall and the chemistry library was made possible by a generous gift from the Matthews family in honor of the late John W. Matthews, a U.Va. physicist who pioneered the understanding and application of epitaxy.

Additional funding for Wilsdorf Hall came from University resources; private and corporate donors, including the Richard S. Reynolds Foundation and Merck & Co. Inc.; and a state bond issue.

Photo by Tom Cogill.

Wilsdorf Hall equipment

The Research

Nanotechnology — or the ability to engineer systems with components on the scale of one to 100 nanometers — enables researchers to examine how properties react on this very small scale. This work has implications for a variety of fields, including nanomaterials by design; nanoelectronics, -optics and -magnetics; health care; the environment; energy; microspacecraft; bio-threat detection; transportation; and national security. The U.Va. Institute for Nanoscale and Quantum Engineering, Science and Technology (NanoQuest) is housed in Wilsdorf Hall, as are laboratories designed to accommodate the next several generations of nanoscale materials characterization and fabrication instrumentation that will enable research far beyond what has been possible.

Materials Science and Engineering — or the development of new materials, new manufacturing processes for materials and new strategies for their use — is an integrated discipline with far-reaching impact. SEAS materials scientists work in the areas of structural metals, electrochemistry, electronic materials, intelligent processing, physics of solids, surface science and nanotechnology. State-of-the-art research space for the department and its six interdisciplinary centers for excellence — the Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering, the Intelligent Processing of Materials Laboratory, the Light Metals Center, the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (NSF MRSEC) on Nanoscopic Materials Design, the Nanoscale Materials Characterization Facility and the Center for Computational Materials — tripled with the opening of Wilsdorf Hall.

Chemical Engineering involves the application of mathematics, chemistry and other natural sciences to find economical ways of using energy and materials — such as fuels, pharmaceuticals, foods, plastics, metals and basic chemicals — for the betterment of humankind. The department’s main research thrusts include bioengineering and biotechnology; complex biological and chemical systems; computer and molecular simulation; electrochemical engineering, environmental engineering, heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering; and materials, materials processing and interfacial phenomena. Wilsdorf Hall provides demonstration labs that greatly enhance the educational experience of both graduate and undergraduate students.