printable versionSLAC gets $68 million in stimulus funding
SLAC engineers are measuring and calibrating the LCLS undulator magnets, which were designed and built by LCLS partner Argonne National Laboratory.
SLAC National Acceleratory Laboratory will be on the receiving end of $68 million in federal stimulus money, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Monday.
Half of the money will go toward SLAC's premier project, the Linac Coherent Light Source, which will generate the world's brightest X-rays when it opens for business in September. The LCLS will capture snapshots of life at very small scales. Its ultrafast X-ray pulses, much like flashes from a high-speed strobe light, will enable scientists to take stop-motion pictures of atoms and molecules in motion, shedding light on fundamental processes of biology, chemistry and technology.
The overall infusion of new funds, arising from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will accelerate the acquisition of major research equipment for the LCLS and pay for seismic upgrades to SLAC infrastructure. The money will "provide much-needed modernization and construction of our facilities, while bringing new hope and jobs to the local economy," said SLAC Director Persis Drell.
Chu, a Nobel laureate, is a professor emeritus at Stanford and former chair of the university's Physics Department. He made his announcement during a visit to Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. The $68 million heading toward SLAC is part of $1.2 billion allocated under the Recovery Act for the Energy Department's Office of Science.