Auburn tops off new Applied Research Institute addition in Huntsville

Auburn’s strategic Rocket City research initiatives just keep on rolling.

On Monday, Turner Construction Company hosted university administrators and city of Huntsville officials at a topping off ceremony for the new 50,000-square-foot addition to the Auburn University Applied Research Institute (AUARI) in Cummings Research Park.

Toomer’s lemonade was served. The traditional tree placed atop the building’s final beam was rolled.

Located at 905 Mark C. Smith Dr, less than a mile from AUARI’s current campus on Voyager Way, the new facility is a joint venture between Auburn University and the City of Huntsville’s Industrial Development Board. The expansion is backed by a recent $11.4 million Department of Defense contract and will establish the nation’s only university-led radiation hardening test facility.

“This is truly a great day for Auburn,” Steve Taylor, senior vice president for research and economic development told attendees. “We recognized the need for a much more significant presence in Huntsville. This new applied research lab is a critical step in fulfilling our mission to support defense and aerospace partners like the Missile Defense Agency, the Space Development Agency, DEVCOM Aviation and Missile Center and, of course, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.”

In addition to providing rapid prototyping, the facility will focus on rad hardening — the process of ensuring the durability of microelectronics in the intense radiation environments of space. Equipped with a multi-million-dollar cyclotron, the lab will simulate space radiation to test and evaluate vital defense systems for the Missile Defense Agency.

“Our new capacity to conduct this level of testing is not just important for Auburn or Huntsville — it’s essential for the future of national defense,” Taylor said. “We are proud to partner with the Missile Defense Agency to meet this need, and we’re deeply grateful to the City of Huntsville for being an outstanding partner in this journey.”

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle echoed Taylor’s sentiments.

“Today is about partnerships,” Battle said. “This is how we (Huntsville) have gotten to where we are. We partner with industry, with research institutions. Your success is our success. This project represents the kind of forward-thinking collaboration that keeps Huntsville growing and leading.”

AUARI executive director Jonathan Pettus expects the new facility to open in February.

"Radiation-hardened testing is absolutely essential to ensuring that the technologies we rely on for national defense can survive and operate in some of the harshest environments imaginable,” Pettus said. “Unfortunately, testing capabilities along those lines are in critically short supply. This facility will not only fill a vital national capability gap, but it will also help accelerate innovation by giving defense and aerospace agencies a trusted, university-led partner right here in Huntsville."

Taylor emphasized that the new laboratory is just one phase in Auburn’s larger strategic vision.

“Thousands of Auburn alumni already thrive in Huntsville, especially in engineering and science,” he said. “With this facility, Auburn’s physical and strategic presence will continue to grow right alongside them.”