Southwestern University has received two grants totaling $2 million from The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston.

Both grants will be used for construction of the university’s new science center. One grant – for $500,000 – was given to Southwestern in honor of the foundation’s former chair and president, Isabel Brown Wilson, who died in 2012.

Wilson was a member of the Southwestern University Board of Trustees and served as an honorary co-chair of Southwestern’s Thinking Ahead campaign, which raised a total of $150 million between 2006 and 2013. Wilson received an honorary degree from Southwestern in 1994, and the university plans to name an area in the new science center in her honor.

Southwestern has previously received two other grants from The Brown Foundation, Inc.  to support construction of its new science center. The foundation gave an initial $1 million grant for the project in 2012 and a second $1 million grant for the project in 2013.

“The Brown Foundation as well as generations of the Brown family have been and continue to be extraordinary benefactors of Southwestern University,” said President Dr. Edward Burger. “Their contributions − both in terms of grants received as well as giving of themselves  − have been truly transformative. We are deeply grateful for this profound legacy of support and their commitment to the distinctive and life-changing promise of the Southwestern experience.”

Construction on Phase One of the new science center is getting underway this summer. This phase of the project involves the construction of an L-shaped addition on the southeast corner of the existing Fondren-Jones Science Building, which will add 23,700 square feet of space to the building. The addition is expected to be completed in time for the Spring 2016 semester.

Phase Two of the project includes the complete remodeling of the original 1954 section of the science building and the addition of a new three-story entrance on the northwest side of the building.

Southwestern has now raised $10.7 million of the estimated $24 million needed for the entire project.