You'll find sophisticated and advanced science facilities and equipment at Connecticut College. You can conduct cancer research in our new life sciences labs, study rare plants in our herbarium or get a good look at the Andromeda Galaxy from the Olin observatory. Our fully equipped labs offer you the opportunity for hands-on discovery and research.

Our four main science buildings, the historic New London Hall, Bill Hall, F.W. Olin Science Center and Hale Laboratory, form a science hub on the east side of campus. Each building is designed to maximize interactions, inspire collaborations and support discovery.

New London Hall: This state-of-the-art center for life sciences and Computer Science opened in Fall 2012. It features 13 new laboratories, two seminar rooms, three multi-purpose classrooms, 21 faculty offices, a modern greenhouse, herbarium, electron microscopy suite, cold rooms and tissue culture rooms. It is certified LEED gold, with a number of sustainable features, including a $1 million geothermal heating and cooling system, high-efficiency frame hoods, energy-saving lighting and water-saving plumbing fixtures. Additionally, 95 percent of the construction waste was diverted from landfills and sent to recycling centers, 21 percent of the materials used in the building were made from recycled products and 26 percent of the building materials were manufactured or extracted from within a 500-mile radius of the construction site.

F.W. Olin Science Center: In recent years, the College has completed $60 million in new construction or renovation of facilities, including the F.W. Olin Science Center. The building houses Physics, Astronomy, Geophysics, the offices for the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment, the offices for the Arboretum, laboratories for the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology, and the teaching labs for Chemistry and Biology.

Hale Laboratory: Home to the Chemistry Department, Hale Laboratory features modern research facilities, advanced teaching laboratories and an innovative, studio-style, tiered electronic classroom with simultaneous multimedia capability.

Bill Hall: This building houses an animal vivarium for the neuroscience program and laboratories for assessing animal behavior, intracranial surgery, tissue sectioning, histology and microscopic image analysis.

Learn more about the College's science facilities:

Our resources include:

  • Ion accelerator
  • Phototronics/ laser development lab
  • Computing lab for work in Theoretical Physics
  • 500 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer
  • Scanning and transmission electron microscopes
  • Observatory with 20-inch telescope
  • Tissue culture laboratories
  • Molecular biology laboratories
  • Geographic Information System (GIS) laboratory
  • Recirculating hydraulic research flume
  • Artificial intelligence/ robotics lab
  • Virtual reality/ multimedia processing lab
  • Plant growth chambers
  • Greenhouse with micro-environments
  • A 750-acre campus Arboretum, which serves as an outdoor classroom and research space
  • Boats and research equipment to access numerous aquatic habitats, including freshwater lakes, surrounding tidal wetlands and marine habitats
  • High end light microscopes
  • FlowCam cytometer
  • Animal vivarium, with behavioral pharmacology laboratories
  • Fresh and salt water aquaria
  • Fully equipped machine shop