Boston College is betting big on the sciences.
The private Jesuit school, better known for its philosophy and economics programs, unveiled plans Friday for a $150 million science facility that will bring a new engineering major to campus.
School officials are calling it an ambitious step forward that combines the college’s longstanding strength in the liberal arts with its newer expansion into the sciences.
The crowning jewel of the 150,000-square-foot facility will be a new integrated science institute named after Apple executive Phil Schiller and his wife, Kim Gassett-Schiller, who donated $25 million for the project.
Schiller, a 1982 graduate of the school, said the institute aims to give scholars from the humanities and the sciences a place to team up on major global problems.
“This is where the best work comes from, as diverse minds with different experiences try to understand a problem together and solve things as a team,” said Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. “That is where big leaps forward happen.”
Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2019 at the school’s campus west of Boston. It will add research laboratories, classrooms and space for students and faculty to collaborate across disciplines.
