The National Science Foundation awarded the University of Chicago a $35 million contract to operate a new facility specializing in the application of a cyclic particle accelerator called synchrotron to Earth and environmental sciences.
The university was chosen to manage the Synchrotron for Earth and Environmental Science facility, which will serve as a central hub for accessing analytical instrument capabilities from different laboratories across the United States, NSF said Friday.
The award makes the University of Chicago the newest addition to the collaborative effort between NSF and the Department of Energy, which operates synchrotrons across the country. SEES will give Earth and environmental scientists access to technical support, instrumentation and techniques and synchrotron beamlines from DOE laboratories.
Synchrotrons are used in the molecular study of critical minerals, which are valuable to multiple sectors, from information technology to healthcare and national security. Beam sources include DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.
“The new SEES award will provide Earth and environmental scientists with a ‘seat at the table’ to access over 30 synchrotron beamlines at DOE laboratories, including 19 new beamlines that were not previously supported by NSF,” said Maggie Benoit, program director in NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences.
