Stony Brook University president Samuel Stanley Jr. said Tuesday that the university will tackle big intellectual questions at its brand-new Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.

"I see no reason to doubt that the presence of this center on campus will grow these two disciplines," Stanley said.

Mathematicians, scientists, artists, students and more gathered Tuesday at the Simons Center for its official opening ceremonies. Former SBU mathematics department chairperson and hedge fund billionaire Jim Simons himself attended the opening of the center he created through a $60 million donation to the university, the largest gift ever made to a single State University of New York school. Simons said the creation of the center was a natural idea.

"A great deal of mathematics on the geometric side and theoretical physics are inextricably bound up," he said. "The ties have become tremendous."

He hopes the center, which has structural connections to both the physics building and mathematics tower on campus, will make real progress in those two areas.

"A lot of good science...some great research," he said. "That's what I want to see."

A media tour of the Simons Center last week yielded a sneak peek into the architecture and design of the gold LEED-rated building, but on Tuesday, guests got a public look at the building at a reception which featured a performance by university artist-in-residence Emerson String Quartet and spread of food by Chef Guy Reuge of Mirabelle.

The building features include solar shading, which lets in more sun during winter months and less sun during the summer, and a rainwater collection system which will provide about 300,000 gallons of water each year to supply the building's restrooms and irrigation.

The five-story building also weds math and science with art, with student work featured throughout the building and the pièce de resistance in the front atrium: a set of moving screens designed by artist Chuck Hoberman, the artist who designed the centerpiece arch of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

Hoberman described his work as "existing on the cusp of science and art."

"I think there are certainly boundaries between the disciplines, but what's interesting to me is to find points of intersection between the two," Hoberman said.

The center itself, according to the university, will operate with a director and six permanent members, will offer 12 research assistant professorships, and will host up to 18 visiting researchers at a time. Workshops and other special events are also on the horizon in the areas of math and physics.

"The next chapters in those subjects will be written here," university provost Eric Kaler said.