AURORA - It took more than a decade of fundraising and another 18 months of construction, but Wells College students and faculty are now enjoying the effort put into the school's new state-of-the-art science building.

“The project was completed right on schedule and right on budget,” said Kelly Tehan, Wells' director of publications and media relations, during the official ribbon cutting ceremony held at the college Saturday afternoon. “It has just been amazing.”

The official opening directly followed a program given by keynote speaker Ira Flatow, an author, scientist and host of public radio's “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday.”

He shared with guests the connectivity of science and liberal arts and how a common layperson has resources to invent some of the most fascinating products available today.

Using the examples of how many product inventions were created by chance, rather than scientific method, Flatow reinforced the idea that both science and arts go hand in hand.

“I hope to see many liberal arts students take advantage of this building,” he said. “If the mind is prepared than even an accident can become an idea for a new invention.”

Flatow shared the idea of an actress and her music composer for a device to secretly communicate with submarines.

Part of this idea included a piano roll, he said.

After the patent for this device sat untouched for many years it was brought out again in the 1960s and had a roll in the invention of the modern cell phone, according to Flatow.

With a $19 million budget the 45,000 square foot, three level building currently houses 30 different classes, including math, anthropology and first-year seminars in addition to the science courses.

“It has been 33 since the college has seen a new building erected,” Wells President Lisa Marsh Ryerson shared with the hundreds of guests that filled the lawn in front of the newly erected Ann Wilder Stratton #+46 Hall. “Yet a building is never more important that the people who fill it.”

The building was named for the Wells alumna, who left more than $9 million to the college upon her death.

Designs for the building were a collaborated effort of faculty ideas and the architectural knowledge of HOLT Architects of Ithaca.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in April 2006 and construction was completed by LeCesse Construction Company of Rochester.

Flatow suggested that rather than the typical older pictures of Einstein that hang in many science buildings, faculty hang a picture of Einstein at the age of 26 to remind students that some of the best ideas come at a young age.