Coker Life Sciences Building

1976; Department of Biology, College of Pharmacy, Electron Microscope Laboratory

This facility, originally named the Biological Sciences Center, was built specifically for research, instructional laboratories, classrooms, and offices of the Department of Biology. The electron microscope lab is used for research and training in electron microscopy of biological and non-biological materials. When the College of Pharmacy moved here, this facility was renamed, and the building which had been named Coker was retitled the Health Sciences Building.

David R. Coker (1870-1938, Class of 1891), one of the University's most outstanding alumni, originated varieties of staple cotton which today are widely cultivated in the United States and other countries.

Coker is noted for beginning the first successful commercial cotton improvement program in the United States based on scientific plant breeding. The founder of Coker's Pedigreed Seed Company in Hartsville, Coker was widely acclaimed as the South's foremost agricultural statesman. His experimental farms were designated as a Registered National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of Interior.

Coker served on the USC Board of Trustees for 27 years.