In order to gain a detailed description of the dynamics of nuclear fusion reactions, a cubic array of thallium-doped cesium iodide CsI (T1) detectors will be developed. This detector array will cover 95% of the space surrounding the reaction and will be able to detect the number, energy, and type of charged-particles emitted by the reaction products. The array will be placed in front of a recoil mass spectrometer such as the Fragment Mass Analyzer at Argonne National Laboratory or the Recoil Mass Spectrometer at the University of Rochester's Nuclear Structure Research Laboratory. With such a combined detection system, the total number and type of all particles emitted by the short- lived compound nucleus can be inferred for each nuclear reaction. The data accumulated by this detection system will be used to investigate the applicability of statistical decay models in heavy-ion induced fusion reactions. In particular, the research will attempt to determine what differences exist in the decay of excited Dy when it is formed by three different nuclear fusion reactions. ***
