FAU seeks OK to build $33M brain science center

Facility would rise on school’s Jupiter campus if funding approved.

JUPITER — Florida Atlantic University President John Kelly said he’s hopeful that state lawmakers will approve $30 million for a new brain science building on the school’s Jupiter campus.

I f t he s t ate c omes t hrough with the c ash, Kelly wants to make a splash. He envisions a 72,000-square-foot building along Donald Ross Road that would greet motorists passing the labs of Scripps Florida and Max Planck Florida.

Kelly said the university already has received $3.3 million from the state and hopes to get $15 million each of the next two years, for a total of $33 million. FAU has a couple empty parcels that could accommodate the new labs, but those lots are in less prominent locations on the interior of the school’s Abacoa campus. To learn more about the Palm Beach County economy, jobs and real estate market, and how each affects the other, read our RealTime blog at

“My goal is to move it,” Kelly said.

Kelly was in Jupiter on Thursday to announce that FAU has been named a “Nikon Center of Excellence.” FAU’s Brain Institute now boasts a $750,000 microscope that provides 3D views of cells and reveals more detail than scientists have ever seen.

The device is so precise that it lets researchers see a single molecule moving on a cell, said Randy Blakely, executive director of the FAU Brain Institute.

FAU joins a handful of organizations with Nikon centers, including the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, Vanderbilt University and Princeton University, and Kelly hopes the designation will help lure faculty and students.