As the sun sets through the five-story westward window of the Great Hall, students wander in and out of lecture halls, head to chalkboard-lined recesses to study, or flop into oversized chairs for a quick nap.
Elsewhere, in the nearly quarter-million square feet of Bi Hall, you’ll find students bent over scanning electron microscopes, spectrometers, the 24-inch telescope, or a program in the GIS lab, shoulder to shoulder with professors, doing meaningful research.
“Middlebury has the same technology as a big university, but it’s undergrads at Middlebury doing the research,” says Alex Gemme ’21, who researches nucleophiles and molecular composition.
While the building houses the departments of biology, chemistry and biochemistry, geography, geology, physics, and psychology, it’s a place for all Middlebury students, because, as former President John McCardell said at its dedication, “What we’re studying here in Bicentennial Hall are, perhaps, the most fundamental questions of life around us—questions that have been asked by philosophers, poets, and, yes, scientists.” They’re questions we still pursue.
287 Bicentennial Way
Middlebury, VT 05753