Refreshments will be served. The college's commitment to science was clearly confirmed in 1994 when the president and Board of Trustees approved an expansion and renovation of all of the science facilities. The project consolidates six department-based science libraries into one location, The Nan and Howard B. Schow '50 Science Library, easily accessible from laboratories and classrooms. The new science project is designed to have a transforming effect by encouraging the growing integration of the sciences through linking the Thompson labs with Bronfman and the Morley building.
Contemporary science is marked by the convergence of what used to be considered separate fields.
Williams already offers interdisciplinary majors or programs in astrophysics, neuroscience, and biochemistry and molecular biology. Winners of the 1991 AIA Architecture Firm Award, given by the American Institute of Architects, ZGF designed a similar project at Reed College in Oregon that also unified a group of dispersed science libraries. EYP carried out major renovations to the college's Freshman Quad five years ago and have done extensive work at Middlebury, Skidmore, Lafayette, Cornell, Georgetown and Duke. The general contractor is the national construction company Gilbane, based in Rhode Island. Local sub-contractors have done much of the work on the project.