The Division of Materials Research with co-funding from the Division of Chemistry support this award to Florida State University for operation of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL). High magnetic fields are a powerful tool for scientific research, and have wide spread technological applications. The most popular applications include magnetic resonance imaging for medical diagnosis, high-speed magnetic levitation trains, and power generation. Scientists use high magnetic fields to explore new physical phenomena, develop materials for future generation computers, overcome energy challenges, and increase our understanding of the human brain and life in general. Home to many world-record magnet systems, the NHMFL is located at three sites: Florida State University, the University of Florida and the Los Alamos National Laboratory with seven unique facilities. More than 1,600 scientists from academia, government laboratories, and industry around the world come to the NHMFL sites each year, and use the powerful magnets and state-of-the-art instruments for research in materials science, condensed matter physics, chemistry, biology, as well as magnet technology and other instrumentation development. The Magnet Science and Technology division and the Advanced Superconductivity Center at NHMFL meet the laboratory's mission to develop new materials and to build new magnet systems to advance the frontiers of high magnetic field science. The mission of the NHMFL also includes the education and training of the next generation of scientists as well as to increase the scientific awareness of the broader scientific community. A large number of scientists, including 500 undergraduate and graduate students, 200 postdoctoral scholars, and 250 early-career scientists, use the NHMFL as their training ground. The NHMFL reaches tens of thousands of K-12 students, teachers, and the public through classroom lessons, summer and winter camps, internships, tours, and web-based interactive tutorials and activities. An open house event organized by the scientific and technical staff at the NHMFL brings more than 8,000 members of the general public to perform hands-on experiments each year.
Technical The Division of Materials Research with co-funding from the Division of Chemistry support this award to Florida State University for operation of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL). The NHMFL includes seven user facilities: Steady State or DC Field, Electron Magnetic Resonance, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and Ion Cyclotron Resonance at Florida State University; Pulsed Field at Los Alamos National Laboratory; and High B/T and Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy at the University of Florida. User access is provided through a competitive proposal review process. Much of the research conducted at NHMFL can be classified in, but not limited to, the following 5 broad topics: (a) Quantum Materials, study of the broadly challenging manifestations of quantum phenomena in materials, including graphene and other atomically thin materials, topological matter, superconductors, and magnetic materials, in which magnetic fields change the electronic correlations and, hence, their properties; (b) Materials for Magnets, research and development of advanced materials with unprecedented combinations of properties including critical current density, conductivity, ductility, and strength that are critical for building next-generation high-field magnets; (c) Integrated Magnetic Resonance, analysis of complex problems in biological, chemical, and materials systems through leveraging the benefits of the state-of-the-art high-field electron and nuclear magnetic resonance methodologies; (d) Dark Chemical Matter, quantitative analysis using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectroscopy of complex chemical systems such as petroleum, the cell metabolome, and battery materials, which are presently understood in general terms, but whose myriad individual chemical constituents remain unanalyzed; and (e) Structure, Function and Regulation, use of magnetic resonance spectroscopies to characterize the structural and functional properties of fundamental processes in biochemistry, biophysics, and biology, at molecular, supramolecular, cellular, and organ-based levels.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
