The Robert H.N. Ho Mind, Brain, and Behavior Center at Olin Hall is now open on campus. The facility is the new home of the Robert H.N. Ho Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative (MBBI), a transdisciplinary effort to investigate brain function and its role in social behavior.
Extensive renovations to Olin Hall, the addition of a new east wing, and the Ho MBBI were funded through a leadership gift from Robert Hung Ngai Ho ’56, who inspired support from additional alumni and friends.
“There are a few moments when you can actually see a university getting stronger and better,” President Brian Casey noted at the opening ceremony during Reunion Weekend 2024. It was a sentiment he initially expressed during the groundbreaking ceremony on May 6, 2022, “and today’s the culmination,” he said last June.
Olin Hall opened in 1970, and the need to replace the outdated infrastructure has long been apparent. The Ho MBBI became an initial priority in Colgate’s Third-Century Plan. Mr. Ho provided a lead gift of $15 million to advance the project.
When the plans to modernize Olin were announced, faculty members started seeing the possibilities for the new space on campus, including opportunities for advanced research and collaboration.
“By transdisciplinary, we’re really talking about something more than multidisciplinary,” Professor Carrie Keating, a member of the Ho MBBI Executive Advisory Committee and early proponent of the initiative, said at the opening ceremony. “It is trans because trans means beyond, trans means bridge. We’re going beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplines and constructing things in other ways, in new ways and getting new insights.”
Undergraduates will have experiences that would otherwise only be available to them as graduate students at research universities. The various research efforts underway include using AI to study harbor seals and EEG to track the synchrony of brain waves in choral singers.
The new east wing was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects to encourage interaction and collaboration. The perimeter of the wing houses faculty and administrative offices, while the upper floors include labs, classrooms, and offices. The basement level provides opportunities to develop labs and other spaces that respond to future needs of scientific inquiry.
Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lesleigh Cushing cited Colgate’s long-standing commitment to academic rigor and interdisciplinary pursuits, enabled by previous gifts from Mr. Ho. These include support for off-campus study, Asian studies, and spaces that facilitate presentations and dialogue. Mr. Ho also provided leadership funding for the Robert H.N. Ho Science Center, which opened in 2007.
“As an institution, we have leaned into interdisciplinarity,” Cushing said. “The Ho Science Center is an incredible manifestation of that. We have a number of disciplines, in one space, learning from each other. People are in conversation with one another. They are not siloed. There is a strong sense of Mr. Ho’s legacy — of really understanding the liberal arts and the ways that community and creating spaces for intellectual community feed the liberal arts.”
Watch a time-lapse video of the Olin renovations