Dartmouth dedicates a new building for Psychology and Brain Sciences

Posted 09/17/99

Moore Hall, the new home of Dartmouth's Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, will be dedicated at a 3 p.m. ceremony on Friday, Sept. 24.

The New York architectural firm Robert A.M. Stern designed the building, with GPR Planners of White Plains, N.Y., as consultants on the laboratory facilities. With its brick and limestone exterior and its distinctive Palladian window, Moore Hall will stand as the architectural centerpiece for future developments in the north end of the College campus.

"This magnificent facility reflects Dartmouth's tremendous commitment to the future of experimental psychology and the brain sciences -- at both the undergraduate and graduate levels," said Department Chair Howard C. Hughes.

The new four-story, 100,000- square-foot building houses faculty offices and research laboratories in addition to state-of-the-art teaching laboratories and "smart" classrooms equipped with computers and audio-visual capabilities. The Filene Lecture Hall in the new facility will accommodate 225 students. Dartmouth's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, which explores the neural basis for mental processes such as learning, memory and sensory perception, will occupy the fourth floor.

A unique feature of Moore Hall is the Brain Imaging Laboratory, which contains a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device that permits researchers to visualize human brain activity during the performance of various tasks using non-invasive methods. Dartmouth's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences is one of only a handful of academic departments in the country equipped with this type of brain imaging technology.

A popular major at colleges nationwide, psychology has been among the top four majors at Dartmouth for a decade. The undergraduate program focuses on scientific approaches to the study of three areas: perception and cognitive science, social behavior and behavioral neuroscience. The Center for Cognitive Neuroscience combines these areas in various ways by exploring the relationship between human behavior and physiological processes. Between 80 and 100 majors graduate from the College annually, and the graduate program confers about four doctoral degrees each year. The program currently includes 18 full-time faculty.

In recent years, the department's growth has been restricted by overcrowding and facility obsolescence problems at Gerry Hall and Silsby Hall, where most of the department's programs have been housed. In November 1994, the Dartmouth Board of Trustees agreed that the College could no longer postpone construction of a new psychology building and voted to go ahead with the project.

The total cost of the Moore Hall project is approximately $27 million.

Moore Hall is named after Lansing Porter Moore '37 and his wife Florence Bennett Moore, whose $18.1 million bequest to Dartmouth in 1996 was the largest in the history of the College. Lansing Moore was an active member of the Class of 1937 and a leader of the Dartmouth Club of Long Island, serving as its president in the 1980s. After his death, the Long Island club renamed its scholarship fund in his memory. Gifts from Florence Moore in the early 1990s completely restored the Hopkins Center Theater -- which was renamed the Moore Theater -- as well as the theater lobby and the Top of the Hop.

Dean of Faculty Edward Berger will preside over the Sept. 24 dedication. Public tours of the building and a reception will follow.

On Saturday, Sept. 25, Dartmouth will convene a symposium, "The Nature of Brain and Behavioral Sciences in the 21st Century." The symposium is sponsored by the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Endowment.