CRC auditorium is named for Russ Carson

By Zach Veilleux

For the first time since 1958, there’s a new auditorium in town. The CRC auditorium, the last piece of the Collaborative Research Center to be finished, opened January 25, and has been named the Carson Family Auditorium in honor of Russ Carson, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, and his family.

“The members of the Executive Committee of the university’s Board of Trustees and I conferred, and we unanimously agreed to recognize Russ and Judy Carson, and their family, for their extraordinary commitment to Rockefeller by having the CRC Auditorium bear their name,” says Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the university’s president.

Mr. Carson has been involved with the university for almost three decades and, as chair, spearheaded the creation of the Collaborative Research Center. “Though he has made many generous gifts to advance the university in its mission, he has never sought to name anything for himself,” says Dr. Tessier-Lavigne. “It took some persuading before Russ agreed to let us honor him in this way.”

Judy Carson serves on the Rockefeller University Council and has been involved in the leadership of the university’s Women & Science initiative since it was founded 15 years ago.

The new auditorium, which seats 200, is located on the B level of the Greenberg Building and features a three-camera video conferencing and event recording system. It has a generous seat pitch that allows people to get in and out of their seats without disturbing their neighbors, and has features that allow it to easily accommodate both audience members and speakers with disabilities.

The facility will be used for internal campus events such as the faculty candidate seminars, for which the 430-seat Caspary Auditorium is too large