Graduate student working at FRIB. Find out more

Welcome to FRIB

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University (MSU) is a world-class research and training center, hosting the most powerful rare-isotope accelerator. MSU operates FRIB as a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC), with financial support from and furthering the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics. FRIB is where researchers come together to make discoveries that change the world. They study the properties and fundamental interactions of rare isotopes and nuclear astrophysics and their impact on medicine, homeland security, and industry.

Research areas

FRIB advances nuclear science by improving our understanding of nuclei and their role in the universe, while also advancing accelerator systems.

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Capabilities

In establishing and operating FRIB, capabilities were developed that transfer to other industries and applications.

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A graphic showing neutron emission
Nuclide chart with HRS Jie Wei

User facilities

FRIB hosts the world’s most powerful heavy-ion accelerator and enables discoveries in rare isotopes, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental interactions, and societal applications like medicine, security, and industry.

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Learn more about upcoming events taking place at FRIB. 

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  • 16 January 2026
  • 2:00 EST
Gravitational-Wave Asteroseismology: Illuminating Dense Nuclear Matter through Dynamical Tides Neutron stars present the tantalising opportunity to examine physics in a range of extreme regimes, including ultra-dense nuclear matter. Gravitational radiation from inspiralling compact binaries carries information about the deformability of the stellar material. However, the focus has primarily been on the static tide. Much like the Moon sources waves in Earth's oceans, neutron-star binaries experience dynamical tides, where the orbital motion drives vibrational modes within the star. These modes are sensitive seismological probes of the stellar interior and have already transformed our understanding of main-sequence and giant stars. In this talk, I will review our current level of understanding of neutron-star binaries. I will show how the tidal dynamics provoke oscillation modes and the rich physics they encode. In light of imminent improvements to gravitational-wave instrument technologies, I will discuss prospects for detectability.
  • 30 January 2026
  • 2:00 EST
Implications of a Weakening N = 126 Shell Closure Away from Stability for r-Process Astrophysical Conditions The formation of the third r-process abundance peak near A∼195 is highly sensitive to both nuclear structure far from stability and the astrophysical conditions that produce the heaviest elements. In particular, the N = 126 shell closure plays a crucial role in shaping this peak. Experimental data hints that the shell weakens as proton number departs from Z= 82, a trend largely missed by global mass models. In this talk, I will show how this evolving shell structure influences r-process nucleosynthesis by comparing standard mass models with strong closures to modified Duflo–Zuker models that incorporate the experimentally indicated weakening, along with several sets of β-decay rates. I will also present how these nuclear inputs change the morphology of the third peak and discuss the astrophysical conditions required to reproduce the solar pattern when the shell is weakened. The results highlight how uncertainties in the N=126 region translate into constraints on r-process sites and motivate future mass measurements and improved β-decay data for nuclei near this shell closure. https://www.cenamweb.org/events/online-seminar-series
  • 13 March 2026 – 13 March 2025
From Reliability to Innovation: The LANSCE Modernization Roadmap
Training the next generation

Education & training

FRIB at MSU is a world-class research and training center where students and researchers from all career stages and backgrounds come together to make discoveries that change the world.

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External news and journal publications discussing FRIB.

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  • 26 March 2025
  • Lansing State Journal

One of the nation's premier research facilities located at Michigan State University is getting a multi-million dollar upgrade. Late last month, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science approved $49.7 million for MSU's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/campus/2025/03/26/msu-frib…
  • 18 October 2024
  • Nature Physics

A team of scientists, including researchers from FRIB, published an article in Nature Physics on how research on neutron-rich nuclei shows that in the so-called islands of inversion, they are deformed rather than spherical in their ground states.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02680-0
  • 10 October 2024
  • Phys.org

Scientists and engineers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) have reached a new milestone in isotope studies. They accelerated a high-power beam of uranium ions and delivered a record 10.4 kilowatts of continuous beam power to a target. The work is published in the journal Physical Review Accelerators and Beams.

https://phys.org/news/2024-10-scientists-uranium-power.html