Dedication of The Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center

Two-Day Event Marks Opening of Smilow Research Center

The main lobby of the Smilow Research Center and its adjacent courtyard, dubbed Alumni Plaza, were the setting for celebratory receptions held on both days that were attended by faculty, staff, donors, alumni, and guest speakers. This area is just one of many meeting places throughout the building that are designed to promote interaction. They range from the formality of a 140-seat lecture hall to a ground-floor café. Photo: René Perez

Slideshow: more from the opening event

The way everyone was raving about the river views, floor-to-ceiling windows, and open floor plans, you would think they had just found the ultimate Manhattan apartment building. Actually, they had just visited what may be New York's ultimate biomedical research facility: the new Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center.

During a two-day ceremony held in Farkas Auditorium on May 24 and 25, hundreds of faculty, staff, and visitors gathered on campus to celebrate the opening of a building that is the embodiment of NYU's bid to become a major force in translational, or "bench-to-bedside," research. The first day featured a symposium with six guest scientists, including two Nobel Laureates. On the second day, the official ribbon-cutting ceremony took place.

"This is a truly historic moment for NYU Medical Center ... the culmination of an eight-year quest to help shape the future of biomedical science," declared Dean and CEO Robert M. Glickman, M.D. "This research center will help cement our reputation as one of America's preeminent medical research institutions."

The enthusiasm was infectious, as several speakers at the dedication ceremony spoke of the giants of science from NYU's past as well as those to come. The Smilow Research Center marks "the beginning of a new golden era in the history of NYU Medical Center," said Jan T. Vilcek, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology, whose development of the anti-inflammatory drug Remicade (infliximab) stands as a model of translation science.

Another speaker, Rodolfo Llinás, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Physiology and Neuroscience and the Thomas and Suzanne Murphy Professor of Neuroscience, added: "With the Smilow Research Center, for the first time we will have enough money and enough space to try an organized approach to translational research and to assemble the teams we need to go afteroblem in every direction."

A prime force behind the new building, Kenneth G. Langone, Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of NYU School of Medicine and NYU Hospitals Center, remarked that "all of the things we do in healthcare, at the end of the day, reduce themselves to how we succeeded at improving the quality of life and reducing pain and suffering. If we do that, we have accomplished our goals and our objectives."

At the symposium, six distinguished scientists offered the NYU community compelling examples of how basic research can have a profound impact on patient care. One of them, Ira Mellman, Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University School of Medicine, said: "The advent of a new building as important as the Smilow Research Center is absolutely a seminal event in the history of NYU School of Medicine, as it would be at any other medical school."

At the dedication ceremony, businessman and benefactor Joel E. Smilow, whose generosity made the building possible, expressed his hope to attend a future symposium "composed of scientists involved in translational medicine, talking about how the discoveries at this institution have led to improving patient care and promoting health."

Slideshow: more from the opening event