Under the supervision of Professor Fred Frey this facility has gradually developed since the mid-1970.

"Since 1980, the immediate laboratory supervisor has been Dr. P. Ila (M.S., Georgia Institute of Technology; PhD, Andhra University, India). Her formal education was in the fields of Nuclear Physics and Radiation Health Physics. She has worked in and supervised an instrumental neutron activation facility since 1976." [EAPS Reference Ila]

"A major use of the facility is to support the research of Fred Frey and collaborators in their studies of volcanic rocks formed in intraplate, divergent plate and convergent plate tectonic settings. Recent research has been on Andean lavas in Chile and Argentina, and on the largest terrestrial volcanoes, (known as hotspot volcanoes) which form long, linear chains of volcanoes, such as the Hawaii-Emperor Ridges in the Pacific Ocean and the Ninetyeast Ridge in the Indian Ocean. Our laboratory is active in the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project and in studies of lavas recovered from the Kerguelen Plateau, a large igneous province, sampled during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 183. There are also a variety of other applications, e.g., in archaeology and environmental science. The facility has recently been used by researchers from the University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, Southern Methodist University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution."[EAPS Reference Frey]