The gift from Fred and June Kummer is transforming S&T. It funds scholarships for undergraduates and doctoral students in each of S&T’s three colleges. It supports the expansion of STEM-focused summer camp offerings that introduce young minds to academic and career options they didn’t know existed. It’s also supported construction of buildings designed and equipped to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and hone their instinct for innovation.
Innovation Lab
The Innovation Lab, which was officially dedicated in April 2024 includes spaces useful to students across disciplines, from art to aerospace. Its modular classrooms, collaborative labs and soaring central atrium exude the energy of a hands‑on learning environment, inspiring possibility thinkers, discoverers and trailblazers in their quest to transform the status quo into solutions to problems of the future.
The building is already an on-campus home for the imagination and creativity of students from across the university. It has been described as a place where ideas collide, and where students will flex their entrepreneurial muscle and begin to realize the true power and depth of their drive to innovate.
Missouri Protoplex
The Kummers’ gift supports several projects currently underway, including the Missouri Protoplex, which will serve as the hub of the manufacturing and innovation campus. When it opens in 2026 on the north side of U.S. Interstate 44, the Protoplex will offer unique opportunities for students, researchers and manufacturers to learn how to employ advanced manufacturing techniques and technologies in support of a trained workforce that will keep Missouri manufacturers competitive in the global economy.
Applied Research Center
The 30,000-square-foot addition to the Applied Research Center (formerly the Engineering Research Laboratory) and the renovation of the existing space will provide state-of-the-art labs to support interdisciplinary research teams from across campus. The gift is also supporting the modernization of teaching spaces in Schrenk Hall East for biological sciences and chemistry.
Welcome Center
With an eye toward future students and other visitors, the university broke ground on the 32,000-square-foot Welcome Center in April 2023. It will stand directly east of the Innovation Lab, taking its place among more familiar S&T landmarks like the Rolla Building and the Havener Center. In addition to housing the admissions team and providing event and meeting space, the Welcome Center, true to its name, will serve as a beginning point for S&T visitors, including future students.