Feature Articles

Jefferson Lab and Old Dominion University are launching a unique joint institute that will leverage the lab’s specialties in data science and computing in an effort to tackle the most pressing problems and disparities at the intersection of health and the environment in Hampton Roads. 

Jefferson Lab joins four other scientific research institutions in a collaborative research project that aims to measure the lifetime of spin polarization in particles used to fuel nuclear fusion. Here’s a look at Jefferson Lab’s role in the joint venture.

A new project gearing up at Jefferson Lab will construct a new facility for equipment and materials. The Laydown Yard Expansion project has received $2.25 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding to provide approximately 100,000 square feet of outside storage space. The new storage space will help accommodate large experimental assemblies and support structures, as well as equipment for future experiments and operations.

What happens when a unique research machine breaks? The question isn’t academic. In April, sensors showed that a vacuum seal in Jefferson Lab's Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility had failed in a critical area of the injector – the chopper – where electrons are sorted by large copper cavities and directed for experiments. Without that vacuum seal, outside air we breathe will enter those cavities, contaminating the system and effectively crippling accelerator operations. An ad hoc team of experts from the accelerator and engineering divisions assembled to diagnose the situation and figure out how to fix it.

A newly invented detector is allowing physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility to “see” neutrons like never before. Fresh insight from these devices has improved operation of the lab’s powerful electron accelerator, which is used in nuclear physics studies of the atom’s nucleus.

Jefferson Lab has appointed David J. Dean as its Deputy Director for Science. This key leadership position oversees the science and technology aspects of the laboratory’s mission. Dean will take on the responsibilities of this role in January 2022.