Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
UP TO $27M Magnet Lab Is Funded For Four More Years MIT welcomed the news earlier this month that its Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory (FBNML) is expected to receive $27 million over the next four years. "With these funds, the Magnet Lab will continue to be a center for high field research and technology for the next four years," said Professor of Physics J. David Litster, director of the FBNML. The laboratory's future after September 30, 1991, had been in question since a year ago when the National Science Foundation decided that a new National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) would be based at Florida State University rather than at MIT. The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced yesterday that its National Science Board on August 9 approved an NSF recommendation to provide up to $23 million to MIT "to continue the support of the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory through September 1995. At that time, the new high magnetic field laboratory currently being constructed with NSF funds is expected to become fully operational," the NSF announcement said. In a joint project, the NHMFL at Florida State is to provide $4 million, in funds authorized to it by the NSF, to push the technology further and help MIT design and build a $9 million, world-record 45 tesla class magnet for later use in the Florida laboratory. The other $18 million will fund four years of operations, providing facilities for the nation's scientists to use the 25 magnets at the MIT lab in their experiments. Each year, 300 to 400 scientists from universities and laboratories throughout the nation use the MIT magnets, which range in strength from 8 to more than 30 tesla. (One tesla equals a magnetic field 20,000 times the strength of the Earth's magnetic field.) Professor Litster commented: "This arrangement represents a cooperative effort of the National Science Foundation, the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to provide the best possible support for high magnetic field research in the United States. We are looking forward to providing users with high magnetic fields for the next four years, and we are looking forward to the cooperative project with the NHMFL to produce a 45 tesla class magnet. This will maintain the US world leadership." The current world record for a steady magnetic field is held by the MIT laboratory for a 31.8 tesla magnet, which has been in service since 1981. That record will be superseded this fall when the MIT lab puts into service a new 35 tesla magnet. Magnetic fields are used by scientists to examine the nature of materials in the fields of physics, materials science and engineering, chemistry, biological sciences, and computer science. The proposed 45 tesla magnet, by combining superconducting magnets and Bitter (water-cooled) magnets, would achieve a magnetic field 900,000 times the strength of the Earth's magnetic field. The 45 tesla magnet, now in design, is expected to be 4 meters in height and 3 meters in diameter (roughly 13 feet tall and 10 feet wide). The magnetic field is achieved at the center of the magnet in a cylinder about 1-1/2 inches in diameter, where the scientific experiments take place. The NSF announcement said: "The 4-year award to MIT will help ensure that scientists who must use powerful magnets for their research will have access to this highly sophisticated technology." Dr. Mary Good, chairman of the NSB, said the NSB action "will help the US maintain its position in high magnetic field technology." The NSF announcement also quoted Dr. Jack E. Crow, director of the NHMFL, a joint project of Florida State University, the University of Florida and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Dr. Crow said "The NHMFL is very excited about collaborating with MIT on this project. These interactions will exemplify the outstanding tradition and research accomplishments that have characterized the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory."