Ted's Café
March 10, 2025 09:31 AM
When it opens, the newly renovated café at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology will be called Ted’s Café.
Founding Director Ted Brown, a champion for the café and the community it offers, is making a generous gift to the renovation.
“It’s part of the dream we had at the beginning,” Brown said, speaking of his work in shaping the Beckman Institute 40 years ago. “A café offered an opportunity to add to the creative environment.”
In the early 1980s, the concept of a space where researchers of widely differing backgrounds could work together was almost unheard of. Brown, along with several University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign collaborators, worked closely with benefactors Arnold and Mabel Beckman to create the Beckman Institute. The entire building, including the original café, was designed to bring people together.
