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On January 26, 2023, Liberty Science Center announced that the ADP Foundation has signed on as a Founding Partner of SciTech Scity with a $1 million donation to the unique innovation campus being developed by the Center in Jersey City.
SciTech Scity will foster the creation and growth of new companies that use science and technology to make the world a better place. SciTech Scity aims to be an internationally recognized community where businesses test—and visitors and residents experience—new science-based products and services before they come to market.
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Bob Lockett, Chief Diversity and Talent Officer of ADP, said:
A firm believer in doing well by doing good, ADP recognizes its responsibility to give back to and generate a lasting, positive impact upon the communities in which we work and live.
These communities are being challenged in new ways as the world continues to evolve, demanding innovative solutions for navigating forward.
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The ADP Foundation is proud to support Liberty Science Center’s SciTech Scity in our continued commitment to positively impacting the world through innovation.
LSC President and CEO Paul Hoffman said:
We are grateful to the ADP Foundation for its support of our vision. Just as ADP is utilizing technological advancements to reshape the world of work, we know science and technology are also the keys to the economic, social, and intellectual future of our country.
We need STEM-related talent to compete globally and we need STEM innovation to cement our position as a global leader. SciTech Scity will help to drive New Jersey’s innovation economy and help put Jersey City and the State on the leading edge of applied science worldwide.
The ADP Foundation’s support is just the latest commitment made by the company, its leaders, and its associates to Liberty Science Center.
ADP’s chief diversity and talent officer Bob Lockett joined LSC’s Board of Trustees in January, supporting the Center’s efforts to create SciTech Scity.
Additionally, Josh Weston–who served as CEO of ADP for 15 years until his retirement and is now Chairman Emeritus–is a trustee of both SciTech Scity and LSC, where he is Chairman Emeritus.
The support of Josh and his family also funded the creation of two exciting new spaces, the Weston Family Lab for Earth and Space Exploration and the Weston Family Art & Science Pavilion.
SciTech Scity is a public-private partnership. The city of Jersey City gifted land worth $18 million and Liberty Science Center has lined up approximately $400 million of the $440-million construction budget.
Extensive site work is currently ongoing with construction expected to start early in the summer of 2023 once the final $40 million is in place. SciTech Scity is scheduled to open in 2025.
Donors include the Honorable Frank J. Guarini, David Barry, the Overdeck Family Foundation, the Paul & Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation, Joe and Millie Williams, and Josh and Judy Weston.
Major corporate partners include EY, Verizon, Bank of America, the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, and now ADP.
About SciTech Scity
LSC is engaged in a large expansion to build what will become the 30-acre SciTech Scity innovation campus. SciTech Scity will bring together technologists, scientists, entrepreneurs, civic leaders, citizens, teachers, students, and other thinkers and doers who share renowned computer scientist Alan Kay’s prescription that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
SciTech Scity will be a community infused with scientific creativity and actionable optimism about building a better future for all of us.
The first phase of this “Science City of Tomorrow,” scheduled to fully open in 2025, includes:
Edge Works:
The business creation hub of SciTech Scity will be an eight-story facility called Edge Works housing laboratories, R&D spaces, office suites, co-working spaces and a product showcase for startup companies and universities that want to be part of this innovation ecosystem.
The initial focus of Edge Works will be healthcare and clean tech/climate tech. Edge Works’ first innovation partner and international tenant is Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, one of the top-ten hospitals in the world. Sheba will not be treating patients at SciTech Scity, rather it will be creating a “hospital of the future” simulation space to showcase what health and medicine will look like in the near-term future.
Scholars Village: Residential housing for innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, STEM graduate students, and individuals and families who desire to be a part of the SciTech Scity community and test new technologies before they come to market.
Liberty Science Center High School
Liberty Science Center High School, a new public magnet STEM high school for Jersey City and Hudson County that will be built by the Hudson County Improvement Authority and operated by the Hudson County Schools of Technology.
The school will offer programs focused on Earth (Sustainable Engineering and Climate Science), Life (Biological Sciences), and Space (Astrophysics) to 400 students in grades 9-12.
LSC will also help to create preparatory programs for middle school students from underserved communities in Hudson County who aspire to attend Liberty Science Center High School but have faced barriers in developing prerequisite skills.
Public Commons
Five-acre outdoor park with art installations and activations that encourage exploration, creativity, collaboration, and innovation.
An events plaza for concerts, farmers markets, art exhibitions, and food-truck festivals.
Subsequent phases of SciTech Scity may include expanded incubation spaces, additional schools, and other facilities to drive STEM innovation and job creation.
About Liberty Science Center
Liberty Science Center (LSC.org) is a 300,000-square-foot, not-for-profit learning center located in Liberty State Park on the Jersey City bank of the Hudson near the Statue of Liberty.
Dedicated to inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers and bringing the power, promise, and pure fun of science and technology to learners of all ages, Liberty Science Center houses the largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, 12 museum exhibition halls, a live animal collection with 110 species, giant aquariums, a 3D theater, live simulcast surgeries, a tornado-force wind simulator, K-12 classrooms and labs, and teacher-development programs.
Before COVID-19, more than 250,000 students visited the Science Center each year, and tens of thousands more participated in the Center’s off-site and online programs.
Welcoming more than 750,000 visitors annually, LSC is the largest interactive science center in the NYC-NJ metropolitan area.