Christina Koch came back to her NC State home to a building with her name on it.

During ceremonies on the Centennial Campus Oval Monday morning, the facility previously named Engineering Building II was unveiled as Koch Hall, in honor of the three-time graduate of the university who was one of four crewmembers of Artemis II.

Over 10 days in April, Koch became the first woman to circumnavigate the moon as part of NASA’s return to the moon after more than 50 years, reviving global interest in space exploration and promoting the NC State programs that train future astronauts.

She and her crew traveled almost a half-million miles, going farther around the far side of the moon than any human flight in history. They splashed down off the coast of San Diego within 25 seconds of their precisely scheduled timeline.

Koch and crew have been celebrating their return to their home planet all summer long. After her two-day visit to Raleigh and other stops in North Carolina, Koch will return to her home in Houston.

On Friday, President Donald Trump will present the entire crew of four with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, joining the other 30 astronauts and space explorers to receive the award that began in 1961.

Below are the previous landmarks on campus that have been named for women.

Susan Colwell Carroll Residence Hall (1928, 1968)

Named for the university’s first matron, who served as a nurse and hostess from 1889 until 1901, this is one of three similar tri-towers on the south side of the railroad tracks. The building now named Winslow Hall was also once named Carroll Infirmary in her honor, the first structure on campus named for a woman.

A native of Sampson County, Carroll was a widow when she moved to Raleigh with a young son and her younger brother to become the first female employee of the North Carolina School for Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, hired before the school’s first president.

When NC State announced the construction of three Central Campus residence halls in the mid-1960s, Chancellor John Caldwell insisted that one of them be named in her memory when it opened in 1968.

Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Camp (1964)

Opened in 1964 and managed by NC State since 1986, the 200-acre youth camp in Rockingham County was established by Betsy Penn, wife of farmer, investment banker and agricultural philanthropist Thomas Jefferson Penn of Reidsville. The grounds also include the Betsy-Jeff Penn Education Center. In 1959, the couple gave their 1,000-acre Chinqua-Penn Plantation and its elaborate manor house to the UNC Consolidated System, with directions to reserve a large tract of land for a camp to serve 4-H youth from Rockingham County and North Carolina.

Gertrude Mary Cox Hall (1970)

A six-story structure on main campus that houses laboratories, lecture rooms, computer facilities and offices, Cox Hall honors a pioneer in the field of statistics and the first woman to be both full professor and department head at NC State.

Cox, known as the “First Lady of Statistics,” was a native of Iowa who earned a mathematics degree, a master’s degree in statistics and an honorary doctorate from Iowa State. She came to NC State in 1940 to establish the department of experimental statistics. She is remembered for her fundamental role in the recognition of women in academia. Cox Avenue, which runs parallel to the railroad tracks on main campus, is also named in her memory.

Cox, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, also established the UNC System’s Institute of Statistics.

Jane S. McKimmon Conference and Training Center (1976)

McKimmon was another of NC State’s first three women to earn graduate degrees and the state’s first female home demonstration agent. In that role, she reached out to farm wives and mothers to teach new farming and food-preservation skills and techniques.

She developed short courses for extension agents and helped form the State Home Economics Association. Eventually, Home Demonstration Clubs were founded in every county of the state. When McKimmon retired in 1946, club members carried on with her dream for a continuing education facility. In 1966, close to 40,000 members of the Extension Homemaker Club presented $100,000 in “butter and egg money” to NC State to initiate funding for the Jane S. McKimmon Extension Education Center.

The McKimmon Center, located at the corner of Western Boulevard and Gorman Street, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its dedication on Oct. 18, 2026.

Mary Yarbrough Court (1987)

Located behind NC State’s first building, Holladay Hall, this tree-lined, path-bisected courtyard is recognized as one of the school’s 10 Hallowed Places. Named in honor of Mary Yarbrough, one of three pioneers who were the first women to earn graduate degrees from NC State College, she was a longtime educator who earned degrees at Meredith, NC State and Duke. Yarbrough taught chemistry for more than 30 years at Meredith. Led by NC State history professor Doris Hall, the university committed to name a piece of campus in her memory, a promise that was fulfilled during the university’s centennial celebration in 1987.

The Yarbrough Chiller Plant, located adjacent to SAS Hall and the Riddick Parking Lot, is named for her father, Louis, who was a member of NC State’s first graduating class in 1893. They are the only father-daughter pair with named memorials on campus.

Yarbrough Drive also bisects main campus from Dan Allen Drive to Katharine Stinson Drive.

Ruby C. McSwain Education Center at the Raulston Arboretum (1997)

The $4.2 million center is a teaching, outreach and extension facility that houses classrooms and an auditorium. Bond funds provided $500,000 for the building, and private donations supplied $3.7 million. The center is used by NC State students, the Friends of the Arboretum, NC State Extension field faculty, local garden clubs, green industry representatives and other gardening-related groups.

Katharine Stinson Drive (1997)

This street, which bisects main campus from Pullen Road to Yarbrough Drive, was renamed from Louis Yarbrough Drive to Katharine Stinson Drive in 1997 to honor the first woman to receive an engineering degree from NC State. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and aeronautics. A native of the Wake County town of Fuquay (before it merged with Varina), Stinson had wanted to be a pilot, but a chance meeting with pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart in 1932 convinced her to pursue engineering instead.

She was the first female engineer ever hired by the Federal Aviation Administration, where she worked for 32 years, developing safety standards for the world’s biggest and fastest airplanes.

The center is named for Ruby Vann Crumpler McSwain of Sanford, who donated $1.2 million toward the education center’s completion. Known by many as “Ms. Ruby,” McSwain was a noted philanthropist who in 1997 donated 300 acres and a historic house for the Lee County Extension Center.

Curtis and Jacqueline Dail athletics facilities (2003)

NC State’s 600-seat softball stadium on main campus is colloquially named for Jacqueline Dail, but multiple athletics facilities on and off campus also bear the name of the couple originally from Fayetteville who made a then-record $5.2 million gift in 2003 to the athletics department to support facilities and scholarships. The Dails are recognized at NC State’s baseball, softball, and men’s and women’s outdoor tennis stadiums and at both the football and basketball practice facilities. At Carter-Finley Stadium, they are also recognized in the Dail Club in TowneBank Center and at Dail Plaza West, facing the Lenovo Center.

Marye Anne Fox Science Teaching Laboratory (2004)

Named for NC State’s first female chancellor, the 70,700-square-foot center houses classrooms and labs for chemistry and physics.

Fox, an accomplished physical organic chemist who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994 and earned the National Medal of Science in 2010, was NC State’s leader from 1998 until 2004. During her tenure, the school continued its development of Centennial Campus, increased its research funding and expanded its athletics facilities.

Her lasting legacy was introducing the tradition of lighting the Memorial Tower red to celebrate significant achievements in academics and athletics.

The Fox Laboratory opened in November 2000 as part of the wave of campus construction funded by a historic $3.1 billion bond issued by the state of North Carolina. The building was renamed in honor of Fox in 2004.

Kay Yow Court at Reynolds Coliseum (2006)

The wooden playing surface at Reynolds Coliseum, the home of NC State women’s basketball since its inception in 1974, is named for the pioneering Wolfpack women’s coach who led the 1988 Team USA Basketball squad to the Olympic gold medal in Seoul, South Korea, and was selected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. Yow is the originator of the nationwide Play 4 Kay fundraising events and the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, which raises money and awareness for women’s cancer research.

Dorothy and Roy Park Alumni Center (2006)

Dorothy Park made a personal lead gift of $5 million for NC State’s home to the Alumni Association, which opened on Centennial Campus in September 2006 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer. The opening of the center fulfilled a 20-year donor-led effort to create a new home for the association to host alumni events, receptions, banquets and conferences on the shores of Lake Raleigh.

Dorothy Park was a native of Raleigh and a graduate of Meredith College, and longtime president of the Park Foundation, which has provided 1,300 academic scholarships to date, based on scholarship, service and character.

Her husband, Roy Park, graduated from NC State in 1931 and began an advertising and marketing career, culminating in the founding of the Hines-Park Food Corporation, with its premier product being Duncan Hines Cake Mix. After selling that company to Procter & Gamble, he created Park Communications, which owned hundreds of media outlets nationwide.

Carol Johnson Poole Clubhouse (2014)

The two-story clubhouse at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course is named in honor of Carol Johnson Poole, wife of the course’s namesake, as part of a lead naming gift the couple made to the university. The $6 million clubhouse, funded by the lead gift and private donations, was dedicated on Feb. 16, 2014, and is home to a golf shop, classrooms, offices, snack bar, grill, cart storage garage, training area and locker rooms for Charter Partner golfers and both the men’s and women’s varsity teams.

Lonnie Poole is also the namesake of the Poole College of Management.