2008-04-29 00:59:11 -

- The Stanford University School of Medicine has started building its first new home in 50 years. The modern, five-story building will be known as the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge after its major benefactor, Hong Kong entrepreneur Li Ka-shing, a longtime supporter of Stanford University and the medical school.

The school broke ground April 25

on the limestone and glass building, which will serve as the nexus for all of the school's education and training programs, linking faculty, students and the community in ways not possible before. The groundbreaking took place at the medical school's centennial dinner, one of several events to celebrate the 100 years since the school's founding in 1908.

"The Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge will be transformative for the School of Medicine and unique in the world. It will serve as valuable training ground for students throughout the university and medical center and a gathering place for our local and global community," said Philip Pizzo, MD, dean of the medical school. "We are deeply indebted to Mr. Li for his devotion and commitment to education and for his wonderful support for the School of Medicine that enables us to provide a global resource for medicine and science education."

The 120,000-square-foot structure will rise on Campus Drive on the site of the former Fairchild Auditorium. It will be the first time the school will have an identifiable entry point, with a front door that faces the main campus and serves as a link to the rest of the medical center.

The center will incorporate the latest technology, providing wide-ranging opportunities for all members of the campus community--from students to emeritus faculty--to learn and exchange ideas. It will provide a supportive environment for the school's new curriculum and transform the way students learn by offering them more interactive, experiential and team-based learning opportunities.

Mr. Li said he became involved because he shares the school's goal of creating a curriculum that will assist in transferring medical knowledge, crucial to supporting and developing the life sciences. A strong believer in synergy, Mr Li anticipates that the project will encourage collaboration with many other academic and professional disciplines.

"I am pleased to continue our support of Stanford University, particularly with these innovative approaches of combining medical education with multidimensional simulation experience," said Mr. Li. "It is wonderful that the Learning and Knowledge Center, being the most technologically advanced medical teaching and learning center on the Stanford campus, will bring about an important paradigm shift in medical training that offers cross disciplines support for the developing life-science era."

Mr. Li, chairman of Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., has pledged one-third of his assets to the Li Ka Shing Foundation, which he considers his "third son." To date, the foundation and other private charitable organizations he established have provided grants, sponsorships and commitments of more than $1.1 billion. His gifts to Stanford University and the medical school in recent years exceed $30 million.

The new Li Ka Shing Center will incorporate many unique features, including a state-of-the-art Center for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning that is believed to be one of the most comprehensive in the country. The immersive learning center will be named in honor of Joseph W. Goodman, MD, the William Ayer Professor Emeritus at Stanford, and his wife, Hon Mai Goodman, who contributed the funds for the facility. The Joseph and Hon Mai Goodman Immersive and Simulation Center will include a simulated operating room, intensive care unit and emergency room with mannequins that breathe and bleed, enabling students to experience the complex clinical world first-hand.

The Li Ka Shing Center will feature other innovative technologies, such as a virtual reality facility where students can view 21st-century anatomy technology, including a skull that rotates in space to reveal various parts of the brain. Large, high-resolution display walls in the classrooms will allow students to view small molecules or tissues in widely expanded views on a screen.

The building also will house the latest information technology and flexible classrooms, allowing students greater mobility and opportunities to work in teams. The new building will be equipped with three lecture halls, including one for team-based learning, and a 350-seat conference center for major functions.

The top floor will be designed to be a place where students can both study and relax, with a fitness center, nap pods, a student commons and even a designated space where graduate students can prepare their thesis defense. The dean's suite of offices and a boardroom for meetings also will occupy the building.

More than 600 alumni, faculty and friends of the medical school celebrated the groundbreaking for the project at the school's centennial dinner. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the school's founding in San Francisco in 1908. The school moved to Palo Alto in 1959 and has occupied the same, aging buildings since that time.

To mark the start of construction on the new education center, dinner celebrants signed a white-painted steel beam that will help anchor the top floor. Major contributors to the project were among the first to sign the beam.

The school hopes to complete the building by the spring of 2010, said project coordinator Maggie Saunders. The building was designed by the San Francisco office of the international architectural firm NBBJ.

Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and patient care at its three institutions -- Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. For more information, please visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of Communication & Public Affairs at mednews.stanford.edu.

About the Li Ka Shing charitable foundations:

For almost three decades, Mr Li Ka-shing's charitable foundations have sought to enhance the impact of their philanthropy through two strategic objectives: to nurture a culture of giving and to foster creativity, constructive engagement, and sustainability through supporting capacity empowerment focused projects. Mr Li Ka-shing's charitable foundations have supported grants, sponsorships, and commitments of over $1.1 billion. For further information, please visit: www.lksf.org

PRINT MEDIA:
Stanford University Medical Center
Ruthann Richter, 650-725-8047
richter1@stanford.edu
or
Li Ka Shing Foundation
Jeremy Lau, 011-852-21281207
011-852-21281766 (Fax)
jeremyl@hwl.com.hk
or
BROADCAST MEDIA:
Stanford University Medical Center
Margarita Gallardo, 650-723-7897
mjgallardo@stanford.edu