Where the Ideas of Utah’s Future Scientists Take Flight

Science just got a serious upgrade at the University of Utah. The new L. S. Skaggs Applied Science Building—a sleek, 100,000-square-foot hub that opened last July—is where students dig into everything from air quality to drought modeling and semiconductor innovation.

The building anchors the $97 million Applied Science Project, joining the restored William Stewart Building and Crocker Science Center to form the Crocker Science Complex—275,000 square feet of discovery housing the departments of Physics & Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences and the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy.

With this expansion, physics labs grew by 56 percent, and 37 STEM degree programs now share the space. On the rooftops, telescopes open the sky to weekly public stargazing while sensors measure the air Utahns breathe.

“This building is going to ripple through the lives of tens of thousands of students each year,” said Gary Crocker (honorary doctorate 2019) at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The U now educates more than half of Utah’s STEM undergraduates and three-quarters of its graduate students across the state’s public universities.

The project was funded by a $67.5 million state appropriation, a $10 million gift from The ALSAM Foundation—founded by honorary doctorate recipients L. S. Skaggs (1970) and Aline W. Skaggs (1990)—and $8.5 million from Gary and Ann Crocker BS’74. The Crocker gift was part of $19.7 million the couple donated toward the broader Crocker Science Complex, which is named in their honor.