Submitted by Pranammya Dey, Yale University, Class of 2018
On our last day in the Chicago area, we went on a tour of Argonne National Laboratory. For me, this was the day I had been most looking forward to. Unlike most of my peers in the Davis-Bahcall program, I plan on majoring in chemistry rather than in physics or engineering. So while the previous labs had certainly been fascinating on an intellectual level, Argonne, with its broader spectrum of research, was right up my alley. As sky-high as my expectations inevitably were, Argonne surpassed my wildest dreams. I had expected cutting-edge research; I saw the future unfolding before my eyes.
On our last day in the Chicago area, we went on a tour of Argonne National Laboratory. For me, this was the day I had been most looking forward to. Unlike most of my peers in the Davis-Bahcall program, I plan on majoring in chemistry rather than in physics or engineering. So while the previous labs had certainly been fascinating on an intellectual level, Argonne, with its broader spectrum of research, was right up my alley. As sky-high as my expectations inevitably were, Argonne surpassed my wildest dreams. I had expected cutting-edge research; I saw the future unfolding before my eyes.
Cars engineered to charge wirelessly. Next-generation particle accelerators that increase the maximum speeds possible with small tracks by orders of magnitude. X-ray beams powerful and precise enough to attract corporate and academic scientists from around the world. The diversity of research interests was simply astounding.
Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) is open to the world. Scientists from virtually everywhere, Illinois and Italy, universities and companies, submit research proposals to use the APS, and Argonne allows the best of them set up labs and use the APS’s beam facilities. In fact, both the winners of the 2012 and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry used the APS in their research. The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has a lab at the APS, as does a collaborative project between Northwestern University in Evanston, Il and the chemicals companies DuPont and Dow. Argonne, therefore, is a prime example of the potential of public-private partnerships, and the dynamism possible when government projects work hand-in-hand with academia and industry.
Our tour finished with a brief discussion of Argonne's incredible history. Starting just after the Second World War, Argonne's ambitious initial goal was to find a peaceful way to harness the incredible power within the atom, power that had previously only been used for destruction. As a part of President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" project, Argonne pioneered the basic techniques used to produce electricity in nuclear power plants around the globe and in the heart of America's nuclear navy. With nuclear power currently providing around 20% of America's electricity and five new nuclear power plants under construction around the country, it's clear that Argonne more than accomplished its initial goal.
Tomorrow we board our flight to Rome. Frascati Accelerator and Gran Sasso National Laboratory are only a few days away, and I couldn't be more excited. They'll have to be quite something to beat Argonne though. Personally, today was the best day of the program so far (except our loss to Belgium in the World Cup, that still hurts!).
 |
| The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab. Photo by Jack Storm |
No comments:
Post a Comment