Kelly Chipps, a nuclear astrophysicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and an FRIB scientific user, has been appointed to the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee. She is a former chairperson of the FRIB Users Organization Executive Committee.

FRIB Experimental Systems Division Director Georg Bollen was interviewed as an expert for an article on a paper published recently in Physical Review Letters, in which physicists from Japan and South Korea describe the first successful measurement of the precise atomic mass of 19 exotic, neutron-rich isotopes.

The world’s first superconducting cyclotron will receive a new lease on life testing next-generation microchips, Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) announced last week. (Print version: Science vol. 380/issue 6641, pages 116-117)

Michigan State University (MSU) is refurbishing its K500 cyclotron—the world’s first superconducting particle accelerator—to establish a facility to test microchips, like those used in commercial spaceflight, autonomous vehicles and 5G and 6G wireless technology. MSU said the U.S. Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center and U.S. Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency have funded a $14.2 million contract. It will allow MSU to develop the chip testing facility adjacent to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, which officially opened in 2022 and replaced the cyclotron. A subscription to the Lansing State Journal is required to view this article.

FRIB Laboratory Director Thomas Glasmacher was interviewed on the WILS Morning Wake-Up program on WILS (1320 AM). He discussed MSU's K500 chip-testing facility for next-generation semiconductor devices that will be based at FRIB.

Michigan State University will build on its 60-year track record in accelerator-based nuclear physics leadership by refurbishing the history-making K500 cyclotron and installing it as the heart of a new chip-testing facility for next-generation semiconductor devices. The facility establishment, supported by a $14.2 million contract funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center and awarded through the U.S. Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency, will be based at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.

Michigan State University (MSU), supported by a $14.2 million contract funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, will develop a new chip-testing facility at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. The new facility will help meet the current national shortfall of testing capacity for advanced microelectronics.

Michigan State University is leading pioneering research on the world’s fastest supercomputer, thanks to a new grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE has awarded an MSU-led team 1.3 million node hours of computation time on the Frontier supercomputer. Brian O'Shea, the grant's leader, is a professor in MSU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “A Novel Way to Get to the Excited States of Exotic Nuclei” about the FRIB research paper titled “Dissipative Reactions with Intermediate-Energy Beams: A Novel Approach to Populate Complex-Structure States in Rare Isotopes” published in Physical Review Letters. DOE-SC posts about 200 published research findings annually, selected by their respective program areas in DOE-SC as publication highlights of special note.

The Michigan State University-led International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics (IReNA) welcomes a new network partner: The Ibero-American Network of Nuclear Astrophysics (IANNA). Irena and IANNA have joined forces to combine their expertise, resources, and access to cutting-edge technology to push the frontiers of knowledge in nuclear astrophysics.

For decades researchers have studied how heavy elements are produced in the cosmos – but there is still so much mystery to unravel, says FRIB astrophysicist Artemis Spyrou. A subscription to New Scientist is required to view this article.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “PREX, CREX, and Nuclear Models: The Plot Thickens” about a research paper titled “Combined Theoretical Analysis of the Parity-Violating Asymmetry for Calcium-48 and Lead-208” published in Physical Review Letters. DOE-SC posts about 200 published research findings annually, selected by their respective program areas in DOE-SC as publication highlights of special note.

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University has been open for less than a year, but it already has given birth to more than 100 rare isotopes. At FRIB, new isotopes allow for experiments to help scientists make potentially world-changing discoveries as they better understand the universe around us. A subscription to the Lansing State Journal is required to view this article.