THE CITIZEN SCIENCE LAB’S PRESIDENT AND CEO, DR. ANDRE SAMUEL, AND GRANTS AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER NIKKI FEAGIN ACCEPT THE AWARD FOR BEING CITIZENS BANK’S “CHAMPION IN ACTION” FOR 2024. (PHOTO BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)
Old MLK Cultural Center on Herron Ave. to become The Citizen Science Lab’s headquarters
Sometime next year, don’t be surprised to see rockets being launched in the Hill District.
The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that the old Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center building that has long been vacant, but is still standing at 636 Herron Avenue, will be converted into the new headquarters for The Citizen Science Lab. Andre Samuel, Ph.D., The Citizen Science Lab’s Founder, President and CEO, told the Courier exclusively that a number of additions will occur on the building, and he’s especially excited about the courtyard space, where they’ll “be outside launching rockets, flying drones, and piloting robots. Who’s not going to walk by and say, ‘Can I check this out?'”
The official groundbreaking of the new headquarters, which is near the corner of Herron Avenue and Milwaukee Street, will occur either in May or June of this year. All new construction should be completed by early 2025, according to Dr. Samuel.
“This is going to be huge for us,” Dr. Samuel told the Courier exclusively, “because not only does it give us (extra) space, but it gives us that ability to have people walk by in our community and say, ‘This is in my neighborhood, let me check this out.'”
The Citizen Science Lab has been in existence since 2014, described as a “community life sciences laboratory where interactive learning and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) enrichment fuel enthusiasm for all things science.”
The Citizen Science Lab was originally housed in a small space inside the Energy Innovation Center, on Bedford Avenue in the Hill. Dr. Samuel, who is Black, took pride in opening a space to show the youth the ins and outs of science and research, right in their own backyard, as many of the youth involved were also Black.
By 2019, the lab had outgrown the physical space inside the Energy Innovation Center, so the lab moved to a larger space in Bethel Park, a few minutes from South Hills Village mall. But Dr. Samuel told the Courier there was always the intention to move the lab back to the Hill District, and for the last five years, “Project Dream” has been in effect, raising the capital needed for the big move.
Dr. Samuel said philanthropic support has come from, among others, McAuley Ministries, the Buhl Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and the Hillman Foundation. Bridgeway Capital also serves as a supporter, along with elected officials like state Rep. Aerion Abney, who represents the Hill District.
On Jan. 25, Citizens Bank, which is not affiliated with The Citizen Science Lab, along with Trib Total Media, recognized The Citizen Science Lab as its 2024 “Champion in Action” for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy. Citizens Bank’s Pittsburgh Market President, Mark Rendulic, presented a $50,000 check to The Citizen Science Lab at the lab’s Washington Road location. Rendulic also said the lab would receive volunteer support from Citizens colleagues, and free print advertisements from Trib Total Media.
“It’s not just about a check for us,” Rendulic said. “This program (Champions in Action) is very, very focused on making sure we select very specific type of nonprofits under $5 million in revenue. Our commitment is to help them with long-term growth…Doctor (Samuel), you and your team are doing such critical work, you’re making such a big difference in so many ways. Thank you for leaving D.C. and coming to Pittsburgh.”
Dr. Samuel was raised in Washington, D.C., but was born in Germany to a German mother and Black father. He began his collegiate journey at Tuskegee University, in Alabama, but he soon battled periods of drug addiction and homelessness for six years, he told the Courier. Eventually, Dr. Samuel transferred the credits he had earned at Tuskegee to another HBCU, the University of the District of Columbia, and earned a bachelor’s degree there in Biology.
So how did Dr. Samuel get to the Steel City? In 2004, his wife went to law school in Pittsburgh, and Dr. Samuel made the move, too. While working at the University of Pittsburgh as a research technologist, Dr. Samuel applied to the Ph.D. program at Duquesne University. After some hard work, he walked out of Duquesne University with a Ph.D. in Biology, with a focus on molecular modeling and using proteins as a target to develop new antibiotics.
But before he said goodbye to Duquesne, he noticed that “we were sitting at the foot of the Hill District, and our biology labs would stay open and unused during the summer,” Dr. Samuel told the Courier.
Dr. Samuel began having small programs for youth inside the previously-unused biology labs, and it didn’t go unnoticed. One of the faculty members informed Dr. Samuel that a $500,000 grant was coming to the university, and “we’ll turn it over to you and you can create what you want to create,” Dr. Samuel said he was told.
“The Citizen Science Lab” was born.
And the well-known Bill Generett, J.D., the current Senior Vice President of Civic Engagement and External Relations at Duquesne University, assisted Dr. Samuel by having Generett’s Urban Innovation 21 economic development agency (which is now part of the Riverside Center for Innovation) serve as a fiscal sponsor for The Citizen Science Lab.
The Citizen Science Lab held its first workshop at the Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District in 2015. The lab eventually became its own independent nonprofit in 2018.
If it’s up to Dr. Samuel, he’s going to make sure Black youth in Pittsburgh see how interesting it is to be a scientist. He said people often believe one has to have a background or knowledge in science to get into it, but that won’t be the case at The Citizen Science Lab’s current or new headquarters. There are a number of free “pipeline” programs that are offered to youth for free throughout the school year, and fees for summer camps can often be offset by the lab’s scholarship fund.
Dr. Samuel said The Citizen Science Lab also has programs for adults who are interested in science and research.
Upon its completion, the new headquarters for The Citizen Science Lab will have state-of-the-art labs that are named after prominent Black scientists, an open glass vestibule to the front of the building with a cafe, a reception area, teaching spaces, a greenhouse and a chicken coop for egg laying. There will also be murals painted by local Black artists that highlight Black scientists. Dr. Samuel told the Courier it all will equal 6,000 square feet of science, learning and fun.
“If you’re a scientist, you’re a White guy with glasses and a lab coat,” is how Dr. Samuel described the stereotypical impression of a research scientist. “So, we’re trying to change that, and we’re also trying to have our young folks understand that…there’s a very lucrative career in the sciences.”
Earning a six-figure salary with your Ph.D. as a scientist is pretty much a given in most cases.
Dr. Samuel said there’s one thing that seems to “hook” the young people when it comes to his classes or science in general. “Believe it or not, are those lab coats,” Dr. Samuel told the Courier with a smile. “As soon as our kids come in and see a lab coat and put a lab coat on, they are transformed. The first thing they say is, ‘Wow, I’m a scientist.'”
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