Beckman Gives $20 Million for Irvine Science Center

Orange County industrialist and philanthropist Arnold Beckman and officials of the Irvine Co. and the National Academy of Sciences have agreed to build a western headquarters for the academy adjacent to UC Irvine.

Beckman’s foundation will grant the academy $20 million for construction and operation of the headquarters and the Irvine Co. will donate seven acres of fully improved land valued at $6 million, officials of the academy and the foundation said.

Academy officials said Beckman’s gift was the largest the organization had ever received. Construction of the center should begin next spring and be completed about a year later, in early to mid 1987.

The center, named after Beckman and his wife Mabel, will contain about 50,000 square feet of floor space divided into a 250-to-300-seat auditorium, a 100-seat multipurpose room and a 60-seat meeting room, plus several conference rooms and offices. The center will also offer its members a support staff, computers and telecommunications equipment.

The academy was chartered by the federal government in 1863 as its official adviser on scientific matters. It has since divided into several additional organizations: the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Together the academies’ projected budget is $100 million for 1986.

Beckman described the work of the academies as “soft science . . . which has to do with dealing with ethical problems” rather than actual laboratory research.