September 29, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — UMass Dartmouth’s new marine science building is finished, its laboratories gleaming with the promise of new research.
The $55 million School for Marine Science and Technology building, dubbed SMAST East, officially opens today in the South End of New Bedford. At 64,000 square feet, it nearly triples the physical size of SMAST, a graduate school and research center focusing on fisheries, coastal preservation, ocean modeling, and climate change.
The new building reunites the school’s programs in a campus-like setting. For several years, some have been housed in the AT&T building in Fairhaven for lack of space.
“Just to be back together was great,” said Steve Cadrin, a professor and chairman of the Department of Fisheries Oceanography. But more importantly, it’s a world-class facility, he said.
The building also helps cement the school’s relationship with the state Division of Marine Fisheries. The agency leased the third floor for its New Bedford office, and it will have a first-floor office for permitting.
The Division of Marine Fisheries works hand-in-hand with SMAST on research and sometimes hires its Ph.D. graduates. Recent hires have represented the agency on New England Fisheries Management Council committees, helped the state understand fish surveys, and studied algae blooms.
The agency’s director, David Pierce, is an adjunct professor.
“We are now in a far better position to collaborate,” he said.