Do you have a great scientific research concept in mind but lack the high-powered tech facilities to get it done?
If so, here’s a workshop for you.
Northern Illinois University will host a one-day Argonne User Facility Awareness and Utilization Workshop from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17, in the Lincoln Room of the Holmes Student Center. Free registration is available online and required by Thursday, April 10.
As the nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont boasts a reputation as a global trailblazer in leading-edge basic and applied scientific research. It operates six state-of-the-art scientific user facilities to serve researchers from around the world. Thousands of scientists conduct experiments at Argonne user facilities each year.
The NIU workshop is designed to promote awareness of and stimulate more interest in these world-class user facilities, which benefit NIU’s research and student education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Many faculty and students already participate in a wide range of Argonne research endeavors.
Representatives from the Argonne user facilities will be on hand to speak about resources available to outside users and the proposal process for using the facilities. They also will answer questions on potential collaborative projects.
In addition, NIU faculty and students who worked at Argonne user facilities will share their stories stemming from their exciting research projects.
“These user facilities provide users with an extraordinary range of cutting-edge scientific tools that support in-depth research, drive technological breakthroughs and improve our quality of life,” says Zhili Xiao, the workshop organizing committee chairperson.
Xiao is an NIU Board of Trustees Professor who conducts nanoscience research at Argonne and holds a joint appointment with the laboratory and NIU. He will be among the NIU speakers during the workshop, along with Lesley Rigg, interim vice president for Research and Innovation Partnerships; chemistry professor James Horn; electrical engineering assistant professor Venumadhav Korampally; physics chair Laurence Lurio; and Lauren Grabstanowicz, who is pursuing her pursuing Ph.D. in nanochemistry. A complete program listing speakers for the day is available online.
Argonne user facilities include:
- The Advanced Photon Source (APS). The APS provides the brightest storage ring-generated X-ray beams in the Western Hemisphere for research in almost all scientific disciplines. These X-rays allow scientists to pursue new knowledge about the structure and function of materials in the center of the Earth and in outer space, and all points in between.
- The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility. Established by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the facility provides the computational science community with world-class computing capability dedicated to breakthrough science and engineering.
- The Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System. The facility is the world’s first superconducting linear accelerator for heavy ions at energies in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier. The accelerator is used by researchers to study the properties of the nucleus, the core of the atom, representing 99 percent of its mass.
- The Center for Nanoscale Materials. The center provides expertise, instruments and infrastructure for interdisciplinary nanoscience and nanotechnology research.
- The Electron Microscopy Center (EMC). The EMC conducts materials research using advanced microstructural characterization methods.
- The Transportation Research and Analysis Computing Center. The center provides high-performance computing resources to address priority national transportation Issues.
The workshop is sponsored by the NIU Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology.
For more information, call (815) 753-0518 or (630) 649-4067 or email zxiao@niu.edu.