After around eight months of construction, the Dr Barbara Mez-Starck Foundation celebrated its topping-out ceremony for its new seminar building on Ulm’s Oberberghof. Various users from the University, including the Chemical Information Systems Group, will be moving into the building next year. The Foundation, which is named after the chemist Dr Barbara Mez-Starck, is investing around 6.4 million euros in the new seminar and office building, thus solidifying its connection to Ulm University, where Dr Mez-Starck worked for many years.
The Dr Barbara Mez-Starck House is the Foundation’s largest single investment at Ulm University to date. For many years, the Foundation has been supporting the Chemical Information Systems Group, which was established by Dr Barbara Mez-Starck at Ulm University in 1969. The seminar and office building is now the next step for this cooperation partnership. “The building is impressive in two respects: firstly, because of the stunning view all the way to the peak of the Zugspitze mountain and secondly, due to the easy cooperation with all those responsible and the flawless management of the construction site,” commented Werner Braun, member of the Foundation Board, enthusiastically.
Axel Groß, a future user of the building, was among the guests at the ceremony. Groß will be moving into the building with the Chemical Information Systems Group, which is the former workplace of Dr Barbara Mez-Starck, and the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry. “For the first time, the staff are all going to be together in one building. What’s more, we have been able to give the facility a flexible design and equip the seminar rooms with the latest technology,” explains Groß. In addition to the natural sciences, the following institutions will also have a new home in the Dr Barbara Mez-Starck House: the Institute of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, the School of Advanced Professional Studies (SAPS) and the Academy of Science, Economy and Technology. At the topping-out ceremony, University President Professor Michael Weber expressed his enthusiasm about the now visible ties between the University and the Foundation. “The University is gaining a new place to facilitate scientific exchange and hold smaller events,” Weber relates.
The speech at the topping-out ceremony was delivered by master carpenter Georg Müller, who has been working at the construction site with about ten of his colleagues since November 2020. The Dr Barbara Mez-Starck Haus is scheduled for completion in mid-2022.
About the Foundation and its founder:
The aim of the Dr Barbara Mez-Starck Foundation is to continue the life’s work of its founder. The Foundation has therefore been supporting the Chemical Information Systems Group at Ulm University since its founding in 1989 and awarding annual prizes to the best graduates in the Department of Chemistry.
Dr Barbara Mez-Starck came as a chemist to the then young Ulm University in 1969 and headed the Section of Spectral and Structural Documentation for around 20 years. This went back to her systemic data collection of all substance classes for microwave spectroscopy, which Mez-Starck had begun at the University of Freiburg. Today, this section has been re-named the Chemical Information Systems Group.
About the Dr Barbara Mez-Starck House:
- four storeys with approximately 1800 m2 of useable space
- office and seminar rooms as well as a roof terrace
- reinforced concrete skeleton frame, green roofage and rainwater usage
- costs of around 6.4 million euros over a construction period of roughly 1.5 years
Text and mediacontact: Daniela Stang