From CIEMAS to Fitzpatrick Center

Namesakes: Michael and Patricia Fitzpatrick

Duke trustees have named the Pratt School of Engineering's new Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine, and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS) for Michael J. Fitzpatrick '70 and Patricia Wyngaarden Fitzpatrick '69. The Fitzpatrick Center naming came just two weeks after the $97-million, 322,000-square-foot facility was officially dedicated. At the end of the two-day dedication program, which featured a talk on the future of technology by Michael Fitzpatrick, President Richard H. Brodhead told a dinner audience that he would ask the trustees to consider the naming in recognition of the couple's "vision and belief in Duke engineering, as well as their past, present, and future generosity of spirit and resources."

The Fitzpatrick Center, which opened for classes last fall, consists of a west and an east complex, each with two buildings. The center is designed to foster interdisciplinary approaches to technology in a number of engineering fields. It doubles the Pratt School's teaching and research space. It also provides new facilities for the medical school and the Institute of Genome Sciences and Policy, among others. The buildings in the west complex have already been named the Fitzpatrick Building in honor of the couple's support for the Fitzpatrick Center for Photonics and Communications and will retain that name.

The Fitzpatricks were featured in the magazine's January-February 2001 issue