UNF’s Brand New, State-of-the-Art Biological Sciences Building

It’s a great time to be living in Jacksonville, and most especially if you’re attending the University of North Florida, a collegiate gem of which this city is most proud for all of its natural beauty, national recognition and awards, and connectivity to both the community and North Florida’s veritable cornucopia of diverse environmental systems.

March 30th, 2012, marked the grand opening of UNF’s latest in a recent strand of architectural achievements – our state-of-the-art Biological Sciences building – and we couldn’t have been more excited to show it off to those seeking talent from this area of study.

Jacksonville residents are currently enjoying this pivotal era of cultural and industrial growth specific to the North Florida area. Opportunities abound for UNF students when it comes to job placement in the field of biology. As the area is so perfectly conducive to biology studies, students receive hands-on training with regular trips outside the classroom and well beyond the campus. With the largest park system in the continental US, various marshland, beach, and wooded preserves, and the St. Johns River winding right through the heart of the county, our biology students have tons of research options to choose from right here in Jacksonville and surrounding cities.

UNF’s Biological Sciences building is a four-story facility which includes so many fantastic, state-of-the-art features:

• four grand lecture halls
• 17 teaching labs
• several prep rooms
•  a courtyard garden
•  a greenhouse
•  a “green wall”
•  a large, walk-in freezer
•  various aquatic labs
•  a necropsy lab
•  a gorgeous Tree of Life-themed conference room
•  and 28 faculty research labs for aquatics, virology, ecology, genetics, physiology, molecular biology and molecular cell biology, as well as the Coastal Biology Flagship Program

One of the aquatic labs houses several large, salt water tanks for an up-close-and-personal study of Florida’s native marine life.

The necropsy lab was designed specifically for the dissection of large marine life and has already been put to good use. Coastal Biology students recently dissected a found dolphin carcass for the purpose of pinpointing the cause of death to help better understand the current state of the St. Johns river canal.

This building will be the 7th “green” building on campus according to LEED standards. And literally green it most certainly shall be with its beautiful and spacious rooftop greenhouse and multiple wire structures running the entire height of the wall to serve as the building’s “green wall”. Plus, the outdoor courtyard, or Darwin’s Garden, not only serves as a sanctuary, but will also feature native Florida plant species to be used as a living botany classroom. Students and staff alike eagerly await the progression of plant life which surely will flourish happily within their new homes.

Our determination to continually progress and compete in the ever-growing world of science and technology is just one of the many reasons Jacksonville loves UNF.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Pay us a visit for a group campus tour, or even a private tour, and see for yourself why you’ll love UNF too! www.unf.edu/visitorscenter

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