On terminology, logos, and where we're headed through FY09

Certainly FRIB has generated lots of headlines in Michigan and around the physics world. And of course, given the communication landscape today (fewer people doing actual reporting, more and more people blogging, tweeting or otherwise opining about what they think the news is), it doesn't take much for even basic facts to get garbled.

Here's one basic fact: On Dec. 11 MSU was selected to design and establish FRIB, and that's what we're busy working on at the moment. We are not working to build or construct FRIB, activities that are only a subset of establishing the facility and that won't take place for several years.

Another: FRIB will be a DOE Office of Science national user facility and not, as I've heard a few times, a new DOE laboratory. The user facilities overseen by the Office of Science are listed here. The DOE Office of Science has a relatively new logo, which we have incorporated into the footer of this site and will use in our various communication activities moving forward. You can find the new logo in Adobe Photoshop and jpg formats here.

We were very pleased to issue the June 8 press release regarding the cooperative agreement that allows DOE to fund MSU to design and establish FRIB. DOE provided $7 million to fund FRIB in FY09; the FY10 budget request includes $9 million for FRIB.

As for what we're working on between now and the end of FY09:

• Commence R&D program in areas where we can reduce technical or schedule risk
• Commence alternatives analysis to choose between different possible solutions
• Collaborate with the best in the nation and world and put instruments in place to do this
• Involve users, including in an upcoming collaboration meeting to further refine the science definition

As always, I welcome your comments. Thanks for checking in.