This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This award will fund the acquisition of a new array of Germanium detectors, GEORGINA (GE detector Online aRray for Gamma ray spectroscopy In Nuclear Astrophysics), at the Nuclear Science Laboratory, University of Notre Dame. GEORGINA will be a versatile gamma-ray detection facility that will make it possible to perform many important experiments that are crucial to our understanding of how stars produce energy and how the heavy elements that we see around us are formed. In combination with other equipment under construction at Notre Dame, GEORGINA will provide a system unparalleled anywhere in the world to study these phenomena.
The Nuclear Science Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame has had a 70-year tradition of education in nuclear science and development of skilled workforce for science and technology research, homeland security, medicine, and industry. GEORGINA will be an important tool in training of a large number of undergraduate and graduate students who will form the backbone of scientific and technological leadership of our country in the coming years.
