U of Chicago Group to Manage Top Lab
Posted on: Thursday, 2 November 2006, 00:00 CST
By ASHLEY M. HEHER
CHICAGO - A group led by the University of Chicago landed a five-year, $1.6 billion federal contract Wednesday to manage the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, considered the nation's premier physics laboratory.
The deal with Fermi Research Alliance LLC, a group co-owned by the University of Chicago and Universities Research Association Inc., was announced by the U.S. Department of Energy. The contract begins Jan. 1 and could be extended for another 15 years.
Fermilab focuses much of its research on high-energy physics, elementary particle physics and astrophysics.
"Discoveries at Fermilab have helped us understand the fundamental nature of matter, energy, space and time," Universities Research Association president Fred Bernthal said in a news release. "With the strengths of URA and the University of Chicago now combined, Fermilab will continue to provide extraordinary opportunities for discovery."
The 6,800-acre research facility - with a staff of 2,000, and an annual budget of about $315 million - is home to the Tevatron, the world's fastest energy particle accelerator. High-energy accelerators allow physicists to study subatomic particles and their building blocks.
The Tevatron, which accelerates and collides particles in a four-mile-long underground ring, is expected to become outdated in several years when a more powerful one opens in Switzerland, Fermilab spokeswoman Judy Jackson said.
Fermilab's new management hopes to replace the Tevatron with a more powerful accelerator, Jackson said.
Washington-based Universities Research Association is a consortium of 90 research-oriented colleges that has managed Fermilab since 1967. The University of Chicago manages Argonne National Laboratory, which like Fermilab is near Chicago.
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On the Net:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory: http://www.fnal.gov
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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