On March 31, WKu physics students - API researchers - visited the Spallation Neutron Source,
a $1.4 billion neutron research facility under construction at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (TN).
Jeremy Board, Joe Howard
and Kyle Moss toured the U.S. Department of Energy’s facility March 31.
Dr. Alexander Barzilov, assistant professor of physics and associate director of Applied Physics Institute,
organized the visit and accompanied the students on the trip. WKU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy sponsored the visit.
The Spallation Neutron Source is one of the largest construction projects
of a scientific facility that the United States has undertaken in several decades. When completed, the SNS will be the world’s premier facility
for neutron research. The SNS is an accelerator-based neutron source that will provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for
scientific research and industrial development. Researchers will be able to conduct research in condensed matter physics, chemistry, biology,
material sciences, nuclear physics and other disciplines.
The SNS is expected to be used by thousands of scientists and engineers each year from universities, industries and laboratories
in the United States and around the world. The SNS proximity to WKU provides unique opportunities for students and faculty to apply
neutron-scattering methods in practically every scientific and technical field. The knowledge derived from neutron-scattering research
has advanced basic science by revealing the crystal structures of atoms, individual molecules such as DNA, and solids.
Scientists have used this knowledge to improve such everyday objects as credit cards, pocket calculators, compact discs,
computer disks and magnetic recording tapes.
• WKU students at the SNS facility.
