EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Researchers at Michigan State University’s “Facility for Rare Isotope Beams” joined experts around the country as they rolled out their long-term plans for studying nuclear science.
Officials say this plan is part of a bigger focus on keeping the U.S. a leader in nuclear science. The list of recommendations to the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation features MSU expertise in the field.
The laboratory director, Thomas Glasmacher says the plan outlines the opportunities for further research as new machines and instruments are brought online.
He says the goals ahead are to bring the facility to full capacity, complete several the implementation of the high rigidity spectrometers with 10 other institutions which he says will give researchers “unprecedented discovery opportunities through enhanced sensitivity”. His team hopes to double energy access in the next ten years to back the facility’s research.
Glasmacher adds that the road ahead will further MSU’s place as a hub for both business and research.
“The folks who do science here, they stay in the community in hotels, eat at the community. And some of them actually move here, relocate to the community,” he said. “We have the intellectual discovery potential. folks who come here will make discoveries and now companies are coming to Frib so we are really attracting smart people to the region and we hope that some of them will stay.”
In the long-range plan, experts are calling for federal leaders to add more funding to up pay for graduate student researchers to keep up with the cost of living. They hope the pay increase comes without reducing their much-needed workforce.
