A “topping-off” ceremony to mark a milestone in construction of the University of Wyoming’s Michael B. Enzi STEM Facility will take place Friday, Sept. 5.

Activities include a 12:15 p.m. program at the construction site, north of Lewis Street between 10th and 11th streets, concluding with the beam-raising ceremony at 12:45 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

The Michael B. Enzi STEM Facility, named for Wyoming’s longtime U.S. senator, will contain undergraduate laboratories in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The nearly 100,000-square-foot building, scheduled for completion in May 2015, will house about 32 laboratories, including teaching labs for introductory courses such as general chemistry, general biology, organic chemistry, elementary physics, mathematics, computational sciences, computer science and other large-enrollment lab courses. Eight preparatory rooms and eight offices also will be included.

The building will not house research laboratories.

The new instructional laboratories will replace existing facilities on campus, many of which are outdated. For example, botany laboratories last were remodeled in the 1950s, while zoology and physiology, chemistry and physics laboratories remain essentially the same as when built nearly 45years ago.

Funding for the new building was made available through a 2011 Wyoming legislative appropriation of $50 million in federal Abandoned Mine Lands dollars. The project is administered by the Office of Construction Management in the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information.

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