March 13, 2020

Biosphere 2 Suspending Public Activities

TUCSON, Ariz. — A message from Joaquin Ruiz, director of the University of Arizona's Biosphere 2 and vice president for global environmental futures:

With the escalating public health crisis, we must all take a proactive approach to protecting our community’s health, including our team. With this in mind, Biosphere 2 will be suspending all public activities effective today, March 13, at 4 p.m., for an undetermined period of time.

Slowing the spread of COVID-19 will help protect the most vulnerable in our community and allow our health care system to keep pace with those who do fall sick.

We will continue to make decisions with vigilance, informed by the latest science-based information and guided by our missions and values. We will update our website and phonelines with the latest information about when we will reopen to the public. 

We know you share our concern about our staff, Biosphere 2 and its active research. We want to reassure you that a core team of staff will continue to maintain all critical research support systems during this uncertain time.

If you were planning on visiting Biosphere 2, we hope you’ll be able to stop by when we are open again.

While we will miss sharing our science with you on site, we promise to keep you connected to Biosphere 2 on social media and our website while we are closed. Do let us know if you have any questions.

Additional information is available on the University of Arizona COVID-19 website, https://www.arizona.edu/coronavirus-covid-19-information.

Media contacts:
John Adams
Biosphere 2
520-621-3955 (office) | 520-490-2575 (cell)
jadamsb2@email.arizona.edu  

Pam Scott
University Communications
520-621-1951 (office) | 509-570-4610 (cell)
pscott@arizona.edu

The University of Arizona, a land-grant university with two independently accredited medical schools, is one of the nation's top public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report. Established in 1885, the university is widely recognized as a student-centric university and has been designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. The university ranked in the top 20 in 2018 in research expenditures among all public universities, according to the National Science Foundation, and is a leading Research 1 institution with $687 million in annual research expenditures. The university advances the frontiers of interdisciplinary scholarship and entrepreneurial partnerships as a member of the Association of American Universities, the 65 leading public and private research universities in the U.S. It benefits the state with an estimated economic impact of $4.1 billion annually.