UC San Diego dedicates new science building to Tata

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University of California in San Diego celebrated the dedication of a new building for the divisions of Biological and Physical Sciences on Sept. 12: Tata Hall for the Sciences or Tata Hall.

The dedication was in recognition of a $70 million gift given to the university by Tata Trusts last year in an effort to create a bi-national Tata Institute for Genetics and Society.

The Tata Institute for Genetics and Society was established as a collaborative partnership between the university and research operations in India and will occupy the fifth floor of Tata Hall.

The institute’s mission is to advance global science and technology through socially conscious means to develop solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, such as public health and agriculture.

“It is my privilege to dedicate this building in recognition of the Tata Trusts’ leadership and collaboration with UC San Diego, and the Tata family’s pioneering philanthropy and singular impact to bring about societal change,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla.

“Tata Hall exemplifies UC San Diego’s tradition of non-tradition, inspiring cross-disciplinary collaboration among researchers and the next generation of innovators. This building will embody the spirit of the many shared values of UC San Diego and the Tata Trusts to benefit our global society,” he added.

Trustees of the Tata Trusts were present at the dedication of Tata Hall and participated in the ceremonial signing of a beam that will be incorporated into the construction of the building which is to be completed in 2018.

“I am very proud of being associated with this great institution. I realized that here in San Diego, I had seen a gold mine of intellectual capacity and enthusiasm. I kept feeling that there is something happening at UC San Diego that would make a difference in the years ahead. What we are doing is a big thing for mankind in our part of the world … and I look forward to this involvement as just a first part of what we can do together,” said Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan N. Tata.

Along with the dedication of the new building, new faculty members were announced as well including Suresh Subramani, Tata Chancellor’s Endowed Professorship in Molecular Biology; Ethan Bier, Tata Chancellor’s Endowed Professorship in Cell and Developmental Biology; Karthik Muralidharan, Tata Chancellor’s Endowed Professorship in Economics and Anita Raj, Tata Chancellor’s Endowed Professorship in Medicine.