City of Hope officials and guests will pick up their shovels and don hard hats next month at groundbreaking ceremonies for the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Cancer Immunotherapeutics and Tumor Immunology.

The ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. on May 10 at the future site of the five-story facility north of Helford Clinical Research Hospital at City of Hope.
Featured speakers will include Ambassador George L. Argyros, chair of the board of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, Michael A. Friedman, M.D., president and chief executive officer of City of Hope, Art Riggs, Ph.D., professor and director of Beckman Research Institute, and Theodore G. Krontiris, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president of medical and scientific affairs.

Also participating will be Pat Beckman, daughter of Mabel and Arnold Beckman, Andrew A. Raubitschek, M.D., chair of the Department of Cancer Immunotherapeutics & Tumor Immunology, or CITI, which will be housed in the new building, and John Rossi, Ph.D., Lidow Family Research Chair, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and dean of the Graduate School of Biological Sciences.

A $20 million gift from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, a $15 million gift from an anonymous donor and other major gifts are making the 108,000-square-foot facility possible.

In addition to housing CITI, the structure, designed by Ralph E. Johnson, architect of science and technology buildings, will provide space for the Graduate School of Biological Sciences.

All members of the City of Hope community are welcome to attend.