President Shirley Ann Jackson announced during the 2008 Spring Town Meeting that the Institute is beginning the first steps in replacing, expanding, and renovating the existing Jonsson-Rowland Science Center. The Science Center was constructed in 1961 and combines the names of John Erik Jonsson ’22, one of Rensselaer’s most generous benefactors, and Henry A. Rowland 1870, a physicist and the first president of the American Physical Society. Due to the age of the building it faces much deferred maintenance, which the renovation is estimated to reduce by $20 million.
