TIME TO BUILD—OFFICIALS CELEBRATE ON APRIL 4 AS THE NEW MLK CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY NOVEMBER 2025. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
Everything seems to be going as planned construction-wise for the MLK Center for Scientific Excellence, the soon-to-be science center of sorts coming to the Hill District.
Dr. Andre Samuel, founder and CEO of The Citizen Science Lab, told the New Pittsburgh Courier that since the April 4 groundbreaking for the center, at 636 Herron Ave., construction should be completed on the facility by November 2025. However, it won’t open to the public until the spring of 2026.
“We want to take a few months to get everyone trained and up to speed, and make sure that when we open up, we’re fully operational,” Dr. Samuel said.
The Citizen Science Lab was described by Dr. Samuel in a 2024 report as a “community life sciences laboratory where interactive learning and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) enrichment fuel enthusiasm for all things science.” It’s been in existence since 2014, 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. But by 2019, the lab had outgrown the physical space inside the Energy the lab moved to a larger space in Bethel Park, a few minutes from South Hills Village mall. But Dr. Samuel told the CouInnovation Center, so rier there was always the intention to move the lab back to the Hill District, and from 2020 to 2024, “Project Dream” was in effect, raising the capital needed for the big move.
Now, the big move is in motion.
THE MLK CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE IS COMING. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
The MLK Center for Scientific Excellence is the organization’s boldest initiative yet, aimed at transforming how youth engage with science by combining academic rigor with real-world exploration and innovation.
Dr. Samuel told the Courier the Herron Avenue space will have five primary biology teaching spaces, including a zoology lab with animals, and another as a tissue culture lab for more advanced, individual work. Also there will be a greenhouse and an egg-laying chicken coup.
But wait…live animals? Yes, Dr. Samuel said. Like snakes, lizards, even tarantulas.
“We keep a little animal room and every now and then the kids go in and check out the animals because it helps them learn about these creatures that are such a huge part of their environment but oftentimes, tales in the media lead us to become very afraid of them,” Dr. Samuel said.
Dr. Samuel said he expects up to 4,000 students will be able to interact and learn annually at the new MLK Science Center and the space in Bethel Park. He said he’s seen many students, including Black students, love the sciences, earn their collegiate degrees and start their professional journeys in the field.
The groundbreaking brought out people like state Reps. La’Tasha D. Mayes and Aerion Abney, Congresswoman Summer Lee and City Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle. Dr. Samuel said his wife said it was pure Black Pittsburgh excellence at the event.
“They understood the need for programming for our community in the sciences and in the hard sciences,” Dr. Samuel said of the elected officials and their commentaries. “I think they conveyed to me and the participants directly that they believe in the mission and the dream of The Citizen Science Lab, and that science can be a motivator and equalizer for us in our community and it can lead us to a financially secure pathway as well as a fun career.”
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