SEH Groundbreaking
Gathering on the site where the Science and Engineering Hall (SEH) will be built, several hundred guests joined GW President Steven Knapp, the GW Board of Trustees, SEAS Dean David Dolling, and Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Dean Peg Barratt for the GW Science and Engineering Hall Groundbreaking Ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 20th.
"This is a really great day," said Mr. Nelson Carbonell, SEAS BS '85, a member of the GW Board of Trustees and the SEAS National Advisory Council, and a long time advocate for the SEH. Mr. Carbonell challenged the audience to imagine the contributions that GW engineers and scientists will be able to make by combining their talents with the research resources available in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region and the new "world-class facility" that will be available to them when the SEH is completed in 2015.
President Knapp recognized the contributions of the many individuals and groups who have led and supported efforts over the years to build the SEH. He thanked GW faculty, the Board of Trustees, donors, members of his administration, GW students, neighbors, and others. Acknowledging the support of Mr. A. James Clark, board chairman and CEO of Clark Enterprises, Inc., President Knapp remarked that Mr. Clark was "so inspired that we were taking this step that he created a scholars program" for SEAS students.
GW Board of Trustees Chairman Russ Ramsy called the event the "culmination of years and decades of dedication" by numerous people to bring GW to this day.
The highlight of the event was the ceremonial groundbreaking by various GW faculty, administration, donors, students, and Board of Trustees members. The SEAS participants included Dean David Dolling; SEAS department chairmen Kim Roddis, Abdou Youssef, Julie Ryan, and Michael Plesniak; Professor Hermann Helgert; SEAS National Advisory Council members Scott Amey, Nelson Carbonell, Mark Hughes and his wife Susan, David Karlgaard, Nicholas Paleologos, and Howard Tischler; and SEAS alumni and donors Aran Hegarty, Sassan Kimiavi, Andre Rogers, and Robert Truland.