After three years, the East Campus Plant Growth Facility will finally open Friday. The facility houses greenhouses and controlled-environment plant growth chambers for research on issues like global hunger and drought.
Leaders from MU, the UM System and the city of Columbia will gather for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the new state-of-the-art facility.
The new facility has more than 41,000 square feet dedicated to research. The plant growth chambers can accommodate corn up to 12 feet tall, as well as facilitate research in a variety of temperatures and humidity. It also enables researchers — from MU's colleges of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Arts and Science and Engineering — to replicate climate variations from all over the world.
The facility cost $28.2 million, according to previous Missourian reporting.
The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. with remarks from MU Chancellor Alexander Cartwright, UM System President Mun Choi, Mayor Brian Treece and Bob Sharp, director of MU’s Interdisciplinary Plant Group, as well as other MU faculty members.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony is free and open to the public and will take place outside the facility located at 1140 E. Campus Drive. Lunch will follow at noon inside the facility, along with self-guided tours of the new space.