2022: Year in Review

2022 was a year of innovation and new opportunities at Lehigh. The university opened its highly-anticipated Health, Science and Technology Building for interdisciplinary research and held in-person events reminiscent of days before the pandemic. Faculty made significant discoveries and participated in ground-breaking research. In the coming year, the Lehigh community will continue to look ahead with the redesign of one of the campus' most significant buildings, the Clayton University Center. As the year comes to a close, here is a look at five of the biggest Lehigh stories of 2022.

1. Lehigh Opens New Health, Science and Technology Building

Designed to encourage collaboration across the disciplines, HST opened its doors in time for the Spring 2022 semester. In January, 32 faculty members and 15 labs from existing areas on campus were moved into the building, which is home to the new College of Health. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in April and an open house/ formal introduction of the building was held in October.

2. Together Again for Reunion 2022 and Welcoming the Class of 2026

For the first time in three years, alumni from an unprecedented number of classes returned to campus in June to celebrate their reunions. The event included four days chock-full of music, food and camaraderie with Lehigh alumni from 42 class years, beginning with the Class of 1950. Lehigh welcomed a new group of students, the Class of 2026, during Move-In Day in August. Volunteers at the Mountaintop campus welcomed new students with a flurry of applause, cheers and music, then the students headed to their dorms where Lehigh’s MOOV (Made of Our Volunteers) representatives directed traffic, unloaded cars and delivered students’ belongings.

3. Lehigh Faculty: Making Discoveries, Publishing New Books

Researchers found a new, high-temperature, off-axis hydrothermal vent field on the floor of the Pacific Ocean that could change scientists’ understanding of the impact that such ocean-floor vent systems have on the life and chemistry of Earth’s oceans. The team of researchers, including Jill McDermott, chemical oceanographer and faculty member in Lehigh’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Santiago Herrera, an assistant professor in Lehigh's Department of Biological Sciences, discovered the off-axis hydrothermal field, named YBW-Sentry, in the area of the global mid-ocean ridge known as the East Pacific Rise.

In the political science department, Associate Professor Anthony DiMaggio released his new book: “Rising Fascism in America: It Can Happen Here.” In the book, DiMaggio concludes that fighting fascism must become a regular topic of conversation in homes, schools, media and everywhere else discussions about the future of the nation take place.

4. Lehigh and the U.S. Army Research Lab Announce $25 Million Cooperative Agreement

The latest agreement in many Lehigh collaborations with the Army Research Lab will allow a team from Lehigh and Ohio State University to pursue three science projects that seek to address the critical need for longer-lasting and more resilient alternative structural materials for use in advanced material systems such as hypersonic missiles. One of those projects is rooted in Lehigh’s Nano/Human Interfaces Presidential Engineering Research Initiative,

5. Re-imagining the Clayton University Center

Lehigh announced extensive renovations to the iconic Clayton University Center at Packer Hall. Built for Lehigh in 1868 by Asa Packer and expanded and renovated in 1956, plans call for reimagined spaces for dining, studying, socializing and meeting. Outside, a large fire-pit will be added, the masonry cleaned and repointed, and new walkways, lighting and landscaping installed. The project was launched by a donation from Kevin L. Clayton ’84 ’13P and Lisa A. Clayton ’13P. Interior renovations will begin in 2023, with an anticipated opening by fall of 2025.