External news and journal publications discussing FRIB science.
Physicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in collaboration with institutions including the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), have developed a new molecule-based technique that uses the atom’s own electrons as “messengers” to probe its nucleus, bypassing the need for large-scale particle accelerators. In the experiment, electrons bound in a radium-fluoride molecule briefly entered the radium nucleus and returned with subtle shifts in energy that reveal internal nuclear structure. Among the study’s co-authors is Shane Wilkins, who now works at FRIB.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are uncovering new details about how stars forge heavy elements, using precise nuclear-physics measurements to refine models of stellar nucleosynthesis. Many of the rare-isotope measurements needed to test these models have been performed at FRIB, where researchers can recreate short-lived nuclei involved in these stellar processes.
A team of researchers from institutions including FRIB, Old Dominion University, Jefferson Lab, and Ohio University developed a new computational emulator that uses the reduced-basis method and active-learning algorithms to predict proton-deuteron scattering with high accuracy and far lower computational cost. By enabling rapid exploration of three-nucleon forces, these tools support faster calibration of nuclear-interaction models and open the door to broader applications in nuclear structure and reaction theory.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and FRIB are uncovering new details about how stars forge heavy elements, using precise nuclear-physics measurements to refine models of stellar nucleosynthesis. Many of the rare-isotope measurements needed to test these models have been performed at FRIB, where researchers can recreate short-lived nuclei involved in these stellar processes.
Michigan State University conducts several long-term research projects that advance scientific understanding across generations. One example is the Modular Neutron Array (MoNA), a more than 20-year MSU-led collaboration at FRIB that studies the structure of neutron-rich nuclei produced in cosmic events.
Wittenberg University physics major Leonardo Juarez received the Thomas D. Rossing Physics Scholarship, which recognizes exceptional undergraduate achievement in physics. Juarez visited FRIB in 2024, an experience he described as deeply impactful in shaping his academic and research interests in nuclear science.
MSU Today reports on two MSU physicists' recent selection for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation 2025 cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators. Johannes Pollanen and FRIB’s Jaideep Taggart Singh have each received grants from the foundation to advance their experimental physics research in quantum computing and fundamental forces of the universe.
The WILX segment "This Day in Michigan History" marks the anniversary of the Cyclotron Laboratory's first accelerated its first beam of atomic particles October 7, 1965, acknowledging FRIB's present-day continuation of nuclear science research.
Artemis Spyrou, professor of physics at the Facility of Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) and in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University (MSU), and Andrea Richard, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Ohio University, have authored a piece about Irene Joliot-Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 with her husband Frédéric Joliot for discovering artificial radioactivity, a breakthrough that revolutionized science and medicine.
In a Physical Review Letters paper, scientists from FRIB and Los Alamos National Laboratory describe an innovative machine learning approach to speed up calculations of the microscopic influence of nuclear physics into macroscopic properties of neutron stars. The equation of state (EOS) of pure neutron matter is a key input to constrain properties of neutron stars, such as their masses and radii. The authors trained an algorithm based on parametric matrix models to find the right emulators for which to solve the EOS. Their results will allow rapid comparison of nuclear input with astrophysical observables.
Wei Jia Ong, staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has received the American Physical Society’s 2025 Stuart Jay Freedman Award in Experimental Nuclear Physics. She is an FRIB scientific user and the secretary for the FRIB Users Organization (FRIBUO) Executive Committee, where she is also a member of the FRIBUO operations subcommittee.
Ten engineering students from MSU and Texas A&M participated in the second Single Event Effects (SEE) Radiation Testing Boot Camp, hosted by MSU's Space Electronics Initiative in partnership with Texas Instruments and FRIB.
