The FRIB First Experiments: Proposal Preparation Workshop was held online 4-8 May. The workshop offered FRIB users support for preparing proposals for consideration by the first FRIB Program Advisory Committee. The first FRIB Call for Proposals is slated to occur this fall.

More than 460 attendees joined in the online workshop over the course of the week. The FRIB Theory Alliance (FRIB TA) and Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics - Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE) held sessions during the workshop to connect theorists and astrophysicists with experimenters.

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Associate Director of Science for Nuclear Physics Timothy Hallman kicked off the workshop. He provided a retrospective on the evolution of nuclear physics research over the past 50 years, calling it a “beautiful 50-year tango.” He highlighted how relativistic heavy ion research has evolved over time due to theorists and experimentalists working together in an intricate dance—often in a push-pull relationship, with explosive energy in anticipation of discovery, pushing boundaries and comfort zones to advance the field and arrive at the next focus area. As user operations at FRIB commence, he emphasized the same must be true at FRIB. Independent thinking in the two disciplines must move together in a well-crafted scientific program to maximize FRIB’s potential and realize the field’s next focus area.

Other presentations included general information for FRIB users, expectations for FRIB users, FRIB status, rare-isotope beam rates and purity at FRIB, expected FRIB experimental facilities when the laboratory commences user operation, and elements of a successful FRIB proposal to the first Program Advisory Committee.

FRIB intends to hold an in-person portion of the workshop this fall, pending the COVID-19 situation. Attendees will be able to meet in person with FRIB staff to work out details. Overlapping FRIB TA and JINA-CEE programs are planned to offer the opportunity to work with nuclear- and astro-theorists.

For more information about the workshop, and to keep updated on the latest workshop news, visit the workshop website.