MSU’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory will receive a 50 percent increase in funding, university officials announced Thursday
The Cyclotron’s funding, provided by the National Science Foundation, will increase from about $50 million to $75 million for the next five years. The additional money will cover operational costs.
“It lets us take full advantage of the new facility we have here,” said Brad Sherrill, associate director for nuclear science at the Cyclotron. “Obviously the National Science Foundation thinks we’re worth a lot of money.”
A $20 million renovation completed last summer has made the facility 1,000 times more powerful, Sherrill said.
“What would have taken three years we can now do in a day,” he said.
The facility is considered one of the nation’s top nuclear physics facilities and has gained international acclaim.
“We have about 300 or 400 scientists from around the world who come here every year to use the facility,” he said. “We’re certainly already one of the leading research facilities in the world.”
Sherrill said the renovation and the money announced Thursday will help keep MSU at the head of the pack.
“For the next few years anyway, we’ll be able to make quantities of rare isotopes that nowhere else in the world can match,” he said.
Rare isotopes have applications in medicine and industry, and could be the key to understanding the origin of atoms.
News about the Cyclotron’s funding increase comes one day after Gov. John Engler pledged a “down payment” from the state budget to help MSU attract a national Rare Isotope Accelerator to mid-Michigan.
In his 12th and final State of the State address, Engler said he hopes to make Michigan the world headquarters of nuclear physics.
The governor’s vision is not beyond reason, chemistry Professor David Morrissey said.
“I think we have a realistic chance to do that,” he said. “It would mean building a facility that’s probably 10 times bigger than what we have now.”
In the meantime, the funding increase is great news for MSU, Morrissey said.
“It’s like a pat on the back,” he said. “We’ve worked for many years to improve the situation.”
But it’s not easy to get that pat on the back, said Bob Huggett, MSU vice president for research and graduate studies.
“To get funding like this is absolutely incredible,” he said. “It just goes to show how good our nuclear physicists really are.”
Huggett said the extra funding for the Cyclotron and Engler’s support of the Rare Isotope Accelerator project will help MSU keep its competitive edge.
“This upgrade is a big step in our keeping up,” he said. “I have the best job on campus.”
