New Building Will Take Familiar Name

North Carolina State University’s Integrative Sciences Building, currently under construction and scheduled to open on the Brickyard in 2026, will be known as Woodson Hall in honor of Chancellor Randy Woodson, the university’s Board of Trustees announced today.

Woodson’s tenure has been marked by vast improvements to NC State’s academic measures, research expenditures, entrepreneurial spirit, financial and facility growth, and overall reputation.

“Our results during Randy’s tenure speak for themselves; he has made NC State better and he deserves recognition for that,” said Ed Weisiger Jr., chair of NC State’s Board of Trustees. “Randy leaves us on a great trajectory for the future to inform all who love NC State and to guide those who follow him in leadership here to take us to even greater heights as a university.”

Soon after beginning his position at NC State, Woodson, who rose through the academic ranks as a plant molecular biologist, led the implementation of a cluster-hiring program – the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program – that has become a national model for breaking down disciplinary walls and attracting more world-leading faculty members.

The new $180 million building will provide vital space for groundbreaking teaching and research, transforming the sciences at NC State by uniting a community of interdisciplinary scholars — including chemists, biologists, physicists, engineers and mathematicians — to create new kinds of molecules, to image and visualize molecules, and to develop technologies that use these molecules to address society’s most pressing human, animal and plant health challenges. Read more about NC State’s Integrative Sciences Initiative.

“Under Chancellor Woodson’s leadership, we’ve added more than 75 faculty members collaborating in clusters that bypass traditional academic boundaries,” said Stanhope Kelly, past chair of the Board of Trustees who served from 2015 to 2023. “Further, we consider his championing of interdisciplinary studies to be a signature element of Chancellor’s Woodson’s tenure at NC State. Naming the new Integrative Sciences Building in his honor will be a tremendous foundation to build on his legacy going forward.”

“We have seen, first-hand, the impact of Randy Woodson on NC State and its community and believe that naming the Integrative Sciences Building in his honor helps cement his legacy,” said James Owens, past chair of the Board of Trustees who served from 2009 to 2017. “A naming of this magnitude is fitting for a leader like Randy whose impact has truly been transformational.”

The Special Committee on Honorary Namings, which received a nomination from Kelly and Owens requesting that NC State consider naming the new Integrative Sciences Building for Chancellor Woodson, unanimously approved the measure and sent it to the University Advancement and External Affairs Committee. That committee unanimously approved the nomination and presented it for approval to the full board today.

“Chancellor and Mrs. Woodson have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to NC State through their leadership,” said Brian Sischo, NC State’s vice chancellor for university advancement. “As Chancellor Woodson’s tenure comes to a close, we are committed to sustaining our momentum and celebrating our transformation by investing in his strategic priorities. We have so much more to think and do.”

Learn more about NC State’s efforts in Celebrating Transformation.

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This post was originally published in NC State News.