New WSU Research and Lab Facilities Entering Design Phase

The WSU Board of Regents approved moving to the design phase of two new research and laboratory facilities on the Pullman campus.

Vice President for Marketing and Communication Phil Weiler said the buildings will be interdisciplinary, interconnected and try to bring people together outside of their offices.

“As problems become more complex it takes more than just one discipline to solve an issue. A lot of times to really solve a problem, you need to have multiple disciplines and multiple experts attacking it from their own point of view.”

The new buildings will look at plant biochemistry, soil and crop sciences, horticulture and also be a center of detection and surveillance for animal disease.

Weiler said it’s all about being of service to the community.

“That’s the nice thing about a land grant institution like Washington State University is that that service mission is really core to what we do and we want to make sure that the work we do is very applicable and provides benefits to society as quickly as possible.”

The next step will be to get funding for the project which is likely to come from the state legislature which Weiler says has been very receptive to the project.

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