Jolie Cizewski, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy, and vice dean of the Graduate School-New Brunswick, resides in Martinsville and is principal investigator on the project. The center will conduct basic nuclear science research on the characteristics of unstable isotopes of atomic nuclei.
Work under the contract will begin in June. All experiments will be performed using the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
"I am delighted by the opportunity this award provides," said Cizewski. "We can now move forward with the important nuclear physics research, and a new world-class instrument, both of which we had on the drawing board."
The University Radioactive Ion Beam Consortium, a group affiliated with the Oak Ridge laboratory, will be a partner with Rutgers in the new center. The consortium is an association of eight universities that brings together people and resources to conduct nuclear science research at the laboratory.
Consortium manager Ken Carter will serve as co-principal investigator on the project. He explained that the consortium and the Physics Division at the laboratory were planning to do similar basic research before the NNSA award. "The award offers a way for us to do a type of work we were going to do anyway and get it done faster, and the NNSA will obtain the very specific data they require," he said.
The studies are part of the DOE's scientific and engineering effort to maintain the nation's nuclear weapons. New nuclear physics data are needed to understand the performance of devices that have previously been tested.
Faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students will be engaged in center programs. Cizewski sees this broad involvement forming a pipeline of young scientists in nuclear science who are aware of the research opportunities in NNSA laboratories.
"Participation in this research program will also serve to encourage more early-career scientists to consider the basic and applied research opportunities at NNSA laboratories, opportunities that many of my former students have realized," she said.