Jupiter Laser Facility Offices opened FY08
for Academic Users

At the opening of the Jupiter Laser Facility offices are, from left to right, Bill Goldstein, Physical Sciences associate director; Ed Moses, principal associate director for NIF and Photon Science; and Cherry Murray, principal associate director for Science & Technology.

The Jupiter Laser Facility formally opened its user facility offices next to the experimental complex on Wednesday, November 28, 2007.

The intermediate-scale basic research facility is unique in that users conduct their own experiments, spending anywhere from 1-4 weeks at the facility. The proximity of office space for visiting students, professors, Laboratory researchers and other users should enhance productivity, said scientific director Andrew Ng, as well as facilitate having facility staff present in T1730 to guide safety and security. An additional benefit will be synergy from interactions enhanced by the availability of a conference room as well as temporary office space for visitors. About 200 researchers from the Laboratory, academia and other institutions are regular Jupiter laser facility users, he said.

The Laboratory provides an environment where university researchers can conduct substantial basic research, fortified by the presence of advanced diagnostic equipment and theoretical and computational resources at the Laboratory.

He sees his role as helping prospective users coordinate and leverage each others efforts when interests overlap, and to make the best use of time. Time is precious, Ng said, noting that requests run triple the amount of available time at the facility in a given year.

About 70 percent of the work done at the high-energy density physics experimental facility supports programmatic missions at the Laboratory, particularly in inertial confinement fusion, fast ignition sciences, materials science and defense.

The more basic research capabilities are, the more broadly they can apply, he said. External users include nuclear energy researchers from France and researchers from the UK's counterpart to our defense research laboratories, the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). With upgrades in 2003 and 2004, the facility provides options for experiments using long nanosecond pulses from 300 to 1,000 joules, as well as short, femtosecond pulses at petawatt power.