Contact: Sammy McDavid
During a brief public ceremony Saturday [Oct. 23], Mississippi State officials will rededicate the extensively renovated Hand Chemical Laboratory building.
The 10:30 a.m. program takes place on the front steps of the well-known campus structure that was built in the early 1960s to house the chemistry department and university-based Mississippi State Chemical Laboratory.
Among the speakers will be retired university administrators Lyell C. Behr and Leon L. Combs. Behr is dean emeritus of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor emeritus of chemistry; Combs, professor and department head emeritus of chemistry.
Hand Lab, as it's usually known, is named in honor of William Flowers Hand, a Clarke County native who was a graduate of Mississippi A&M College (now MSU) and Columbia University. His more than 50-year career at A&M included service as a chemistry professor, state chemist, dean of science, and vice president.
A&M College President John C. Hardy, a colleague of Hand who led the institution 1900-12, once praised his friend by remarking that "Dr. Hand loved his job more than life itself."
The current renovation project was initiated in 1994 with a $2 million competitive grant from the National Science Foundation. The complex scope and nature of the project was such that it was spread among three phases spanning nearly a decade. Over the total project period, an additional $13 million in state funds was added to the original NSF grant.
With the state support, Hand Chemical Laboratory becomes among the most technologically equipped teaching and research facilities at the 126-year-old land-grant institution.
For more information on the ceremony, telephone (662) 325-2646.