Hahn Hall-North has has offices, classrooms, and labs for both the Chemistry Department and Physics Department. The building has four organic chemistry laboratories, upper-level chemistry labs, a polymer lab, computer labs, and microbiology labs.
The Physics Department occupies the first floor, which houses a lecture theatre and lab rooms for teaching and research. The building is also used for a variety of functions such as the Physics Department Commencement, open houses, and lectures.
The wing was named in 2009 for President-emeritus Thomas Marshall Hahn Jr., president from 1962 to 1974. After working as a physicist and teaching physics at the university level, he was named professor and head of physics at Â鶹´«Ã½ Institute (now Virginia Tech). He left VPI but returned later as president. One of the school's greatest leaders, Hahn transformed VPI into a major research university before leaving to help lead Georgia-Pacific, where he became the chief executive officer.
Construction on Hahn Hall-North Wing was completed in 2004 and was initially known as the Chemistry-Physics Building. It was dedicated in 2009.
It was the second building to be named for Hahn. An adjacent, 71,000-square-foot building was named for Hahn in 1991 and is used mainly for chemistry research. Today, that building is called Hahn Hall-South Wing.
