In a ceremony Tuesday morning, Bigelow Laboratory began its long awaited expansion by breaking ground on The Bigelow Center for Blue Biotechnology in East Boothbay.
Dignitaries including U.S Senator Susan Collins, President of the Maine Technology Institute Betsy Biemann, Commissioner of the Maine Dept. of Marine Resources George LaPointe joined over 200 or so people who braved the freshly minted access road off Green Landing Road.
“I’ve been to a lot of groundbreakings in my 14 years, but this may be the most authentic,” said Senator Collins. “The ground was literally just broken.”
Support from Collins was instrumental in landing $1.46 million from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration toward the purchase of the property. A $4.45 million grant from the Maine Technology Asset Fund in June 2009 with an additional $2 million from private donors solidified the purchase and allowed planning to begin in earnest.
The 64-acre ocean research and education campus will include laboratory spaces for molecular biology, single cell genomics, and a center for marine phytoplankon collection, the crucial component of the plankton community directly responsible for much of the Earth’s oxygen in the atmosphere.
“We want to do this in a sensitive way. There are new modern techniques that allow us to look at those creatures to uncover their secrets whether it’s genetic, molecular or biochemical,” said Laboratory Executive Director Graham Shimmield.
The sustainable design of the building is also projected to be LEED gold, the highest level of “green” building awarded
“We also want to do this in the context of an international stage. There are several organizations around the world looking at this. We are joining that crowd,” Shimmield said.
The expansion is also a welcome dose of good news in a down economy.
“These are exciting research and redevelopment projects that will lead to more and more spin off companies and most of all more good jobs right here in Maine,” Collins said before donning a hard hat and wielding a shovel into a pile of ceremonial dirt.
Betsy Biemann said she sees the work done at Bigelow “as magnets for highly skilled and diverse researchers who in turn are magnets for outside funding. These are important job generators for technology transfers.
Lapointe, representing Gov. John Baldacci, sees Bigelow as an important component of sustaining Maine’s most vital industries.
“The connection of basic and applied research is hugely important and needs to continue. The change in ocean temperature and ph levels in regards to the half a billion dollar lobstering industry is important to understand,” he said.
Named after pioneering ocean researcher Henry Bryant Bigelow, the internationally known laboratory has sent numerous scientists to every ocean and the polar seas since its inception in 1974. The new campus will replace the Laboratory’s current leased facilities in West Boothbay and provide housing for students and visiting scientists. With an eye toward fiscal responsibility, Collins summed up the possible impact.
“Whenever I support federal funding for Maine projects, I do so fully confident that the taxpayers will yield a great return on their investment,” she said. “The potential commercial applications with this are enormous.”
