The architectural masterpiece, named the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology, was inaugurated on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus in West Philadelphia on October 4, 2013. The $92 million, 78,000 square foot luminescent glass edifice with the uniquely perched elevated cantilever (see photo below) is named after Holtec’s President and CEO, Dr. Kris Singh. This new arrival has been hailed in the media as “quite possibly the most beautiful building” in the region.
Addressing the dignitaries from around the world in the building’s Galleria, Penn’s President, Dr. Amy Gutmann asserted that the Singh Center’s laboratories, facilities, equipment and world-class faculty will “turbocharge” collaborative research on the campus, propelling the University to the forefront of cutting edge scientific research in nanotechnology. The Singh Center includes a 10,000 square foot Cleanroom, a 6,500 square foot Characterization Suite, 12,000 square foot of Laboratory Modules, as well as the country’s only Aberration Corrected Electron Microscope.
The innovative and elegant architectural design features of the Singh Center have elicited unqualified praise from the world of architecture. Only a few weeks old, the Singh Center has already won the 2013 American Architecture Award and the 2013 International Architecture Award, presented by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) Dean Eduardo Glandt, who hosted the ceremonies, spoke of the Singh Center’s transformative role for Penn’s science and engineering declaring, “For Engineering it completes a transformation of who we are…to a twenty-first century, high-tech innovation leader in information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology”.
Dr. Kris Singh calls the Center “a temple to the age of Technium,” which is destined to incubate seminal advances in nanotechnology. Dr. Singh recognizes and honors the hard work of Holtec’s 800 person workforce in the nuclear power industry that “generated the capital which has allowed me to indulge my long-felt gratitude to my alma mater”.
A time lapse video of the construction of the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology can be viewed by visiting Holtec’s website: http://www.holtecinternational.com/news/videos/.
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