Biola University triples space devoted to science

New center to connect science to faith

Biola University has dedicated what officials call the school’s “most ambitious project” — the new $63 million Alton and Lydia Lim Center for Science, Technology and Health.

Funded completely by donors as part of the school’s five-year campaign which garnered $214 million and ended last year, the facility, which opened to students Jan. 8, serves as a home to some of the university’s faster-growing and more in-demand programs, including biochemistry, biological science, communication sciences and disorders, and engineering physics, officials said in a written statement.

The Lim Center, located on the southwest side of campus, triples the space devoted to science education at the private Christian school, officials said.

“This will be a building whose laboratories, microscopes, petri dishes, computers, and observatories and other offices are all utilized not to deify nature or to declare achievements of man but to declare the glory of God,” Biola University President Barry H. Corey said in a written statement.

“The center for science, technology and health will offer a counter narrative in which science and faith are not only reconciled but deeply and necessary in conversation,” he added.

On hand at the ceremony was one of the building’s namesake, Alton Lim, 98, a finance and real estate mogul who lives in Long Beach.

He gave $12 million ­­— the largest gift in school history — to help construct the 91,200-square-foot facility…

Click here to read the entire article by Sandra T. Molina in the Whittier Daily News published on February 20, 2018.