Officials at Waterville, Maine's Colby College announced Sept. 9, 2025, that the school had received a $150 million lead commitment for a new science complex that will catalyze a half-billion dollars of investment in science and technology. The anonymous gift is the largest in the school's history and one of the most generous for any liberal arts college.
The new funding will elevate Colby's role in Maine's burgeoning science ecosystem, create new engineering and public health programs to enable faculty and students to lead in new and emergent fields, and make it possible for the college to build a new science complex, according to a news release on the school's website.
The new facility and programs promise to deepen opportunities for students and faculty to identify solutions for some of the most vexing health and environmental issues facing the state of Maine and the country.
In addition, the funding will allow the Colby to build on its collaborations with science research organizations, support the Maine's K-12 STEM education, create the right environment for rural areas to compete in science and technology and generate 21st-century jobs in a fast-paced innovation economy.
"Colby has long had outstanding science programs," said David A. Greene, the college's president,. "And that work has been deeply connected to other scientific organizations across the state and around the world. These investments will allow us to take that work to a new level, ensuring that science education and the application of scientific knowledge and discovery are addressing the needs of Maine.
"Importantly, it allows Colby to be at the forefront of educating the next generation of science and technology leaders who will carry with them a deep understanding of the human dimensions of science and the need to ensure that the power of science is used for a broader societal good," he said.
At the core of this overall investment is the development of a $300 million science complex and the expansion of the science curriculum to include more applied science and engineering.
The new facility, which is expected to open in 2030, will address current and future science educational and research needs and lead to the creation of academic programs that address the dramatically and rapidly changing fields of science and technology. To that end, Colby will significantly expand its science faculty and introduce a suite of forward-looking and solutions-oriented engineering and applied science programs.
These will likely include biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, materials engineering and public health, and will build on recently-created majors and minors in fields that include data science, computational biology, marine science and environmental computation.
School officials believe the new science complex will support the radical changes in how science is practiced today and in the future. Its square footage will provide enough room for new teaching and research laboratories, classrooms, offices, fabrication labs, specialized equipment, computing infrastructure and gathering spaces.
Colby College also has explored a number of different conceptual models for organizing the space in the new building to blur disciplinary boundaries, encourage relentless collaboration and integrate research and teaching across all areas of the facility. A key part of this effort will be creating a set of shared areas with specialized equipment and instrumentation (e.g., imaging technology, sophisticated computation resources, etc.) in the new complex that bring researchers into spaces shared among disciplines.
"Students who join the Colby community with an interest in STEM get the best of both worlds, in the sense that they directly engage in leading-edge scientific research as collaborators with Colby faculty and our incredible network of partner research institutions, with all the advantages of a holistic liberal arts education," said Colby College Provost Denise Bruesewitz. "Our students will be prepared to be the next generation of science and tech leaders."
Making Smart Investments, Expanding Partnerships
Over the last few years, Colby has made a number of strategic investments that are part of its focus on the sciences.
Most recently, the school announced the establishment of a Center for Resilience and Economic Impact, which will employ scientific approaches to strengthening communities across Maine.
In addition, in an initiative designed to support broader state efforts, Colby partnered with the Central Maine Growth Council on the planning and development of a high-performance computing hub in Waterville that is under final consideration for federal support.
Among the school's other science-based investments are:
• the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the first of its kind at a liberal arts school;
• the development of a 500-acre coastal research campus via the acquisition of Maine's Allen and Benner islands; and
• the launch of the McVey Center for Computational and Data Sciences.
Colby College also has created a series of programs to support creativity, research and innovation, including the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment, the Linde Packman Lab for Biosciences Innovation and the Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship.
Another key part of the school's science initiative has been its commitment to building and expanding partnerships with leading science and technology organizations in Maine, including the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, The Jackson Laboratory and MDI Biological Laboratory.
This latest investment in science and technology programs will be developed to complement and strengthen the work at these and other organizations in the state, according to Colby officials.
"We've worked closely with Colby College for 15 years to introduce students to cutting-edge research in the marine and environmental sciences," said Deborah Bronk, president and CEO of Bigelow Laboratory in East Boothbay, Maine. "This major new investment will build on that foundation, catalyzing innovation and opening new opportunities in marine resources, climate resilience and sustainability.
The college also will direct these new investments to areas that are explicitly designed to address the challenges that have become endemic to Maine — from having one of the highest rates of cancer in the country to a legacy of harmful pollutants impacting soil and water quality.
