PLEASANTVILLE – Pace University will invest more than $7 million dollars in the renovation of the science laboratories on its Pleasantville campus.

The university was awarded approximately $1.8 million in capital improvement funding from New York State. The grant is part of the first round of funding through the New York State Higher Education Capital Matching Grants program.

The Pace funds will be matched by $5.4 million from a Dyson Foundation grant for the renovation of Dyson Hall, which houses the biology and health sciences laboratories and classrooms on Pace’s Pleasantville campus. Dyson Hall was built in 1963 with funding provided by the financier Charles H. Dyson.

The renovation of this building will mark the largest capital investment on the campus since 2002, when the Ann and Alfred Goldstein Health, Fitness and Recreation Center was completed.

In the last six years, science majors at Pace have increased almost 40 percent, with a 50 percent increase in biology majors. Pace’s core curriculum requires all students to take one science class with a laboratory component.