Congressional staff members from Michigan’s U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives offices visited FRIB on 8 August.

FRIB Laboratory Director Thomas Glasmacher hosted the group’s visit, which included a discussion about the technological advancements taking place at FRIB and a tour, including the MSU-funded High Rigidity Spectrometer (HRS) and Rare Isotope Harvesting Vault building addition.

The HRS project will have a significant benefit for FRIB’s scientific program, in particular with regard to extending the scientific reach to neutron-rich isotopes by a combined production-rate and luminosity increase of up to a factor of more than 100. The project is underway, and a user community of over 500 scientists supports HRS.

FRIB operations and HRS are funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Office of Nuclear Physics.

The isotope harvesting vault will support isotope harvesting at FRIB. During routine operation—without interfering with FRIB’s primary users—extra, unused isotopes can be “harvested” for use in multiple fields of study, such as medicine, biochemistry, materials science, horticulture, and astrophysics. Operational in 2024, the DOE Isotope Program funds isotope-harvesting base operations and core research.

The group included:

• Jeremey Blatt, deputy field representative for the Office of Representative Elissa Slotkin (Michigan’s seventh congressional district)
• Anne Brown, senior field representative for the Office of Representative Elissa Slotkin (Michigan’s seventh congressional district)
• Russell Cleary, caseworker for the Office of Representative John James (Michigan’s tenth congressional district)
• Ali Emamdjomeh, director of operations for the Office of Representative John James (Michigan’s tenth congressional district)
• Georgia Frost, field representative for the Office of Representative Debbie Dingell (Michigan’s sixth congressional district)
• Samantha Goldsmith, senior policy advisor for the Office of Representative Haley Stevens (Michigan’s eleventh congressional district)
• Gregory Grzempa, legislative correspondent for the Office of Representative Dan Kildee (Michigan’s eighth congressional district)
• Colin Gwillim, legislative correspondent for the Office of Representative Jack Bergman (Michigan’s first congressional district)
• Trevor Hustus, legislative assistant for the Office of Representative Lisa McClain (Michigan’s ninth congressional district)
• Katerina Kerska, legislative correspondent for the Office of Representative Tim Walberg (Michigan’s fifth congressional district)
• Edward Kim, legislative director for the Office of Representative John Moolenaar (Michigan’s second congressional district)
• Rebecca Lee, legislative aide for the Office of Senator Debbie Stabenow (Michigan)
• Megan Makarewicz, legislative assistant for the Office of Representative Debbie Dingell (Michigan’s sixth congressional district)
• Katy Michalski, field representative for the Office of Representative Elissa Slotkin (Michigan’s seventh congressional district)
• Benjamin Monticello, senior legislative assistant for the Office of Representative Jack Bergman (Michigan’s first congressional district)
• Phil Rode, district director for the Office of Representative John James (Michigan’s tenth congressional district)
• Sarah Shapiro, senior legislative assistant for the Office of Senator Gary Peters (Michigan)
• Chan Wakefield, district representative for the Office of Representative Elissa Slotkin (Michigan’s seventh congressional district)
• Amy Zhou, legislative assistant for the Office of Representative Hilary Scholten (Michigan’s third congressional district)