The official dedication of UWM’s new Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex – known as the KIRC – helped open a full day of events on campus Friday.

The building, located just off of Maryland Ave. north of Kenwood Blvd., is home to laboratories, classrooms, offices and meeting spaces for three academic disciplines: physics, chemistry and the Environmental Health Sciences doctoral program within the Zilber School of Public Health.

The KIRC is UWM’s first Eastside Campus academic construction project in 20 years, and the first interdisciplinary building. It was built with vibration controls that allow researchers to use hypersensitive instrumentation for the most accurate data.

“This is a landmark project for UWM,” said Chancellor Mark A. Mone. “It significantly advances our abilities in the areas of scientific creative collaboration, ingenious partnership and critical thinking through research and innovation.

Along with the official building dedication, the public had a chance to tour the facility, which will address advanced research and academics in science, technology, engineering, public health, and mathematics. It is also home to a number of research centers and collaborations, including the Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery and the Leonard Parker Center for Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics.