This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project involves the renovation of sections of the Graduate Physics Research Center (GPRC), a 7,000 sq ft building used for physics research and research training.
The renovated facility will be used for research in particle physics and optics, including laser crystal development, and the study of the optical properties of nanoscale materials. The research in high-energy physics will include analyses of data from the ATLAS detector that forms part of the Large Hadron Collider experiment, and from the MINERvA neutrino scattering experiment at Fermilab.
In addition to providing infrastructure for faculty research, the renovated labs will provide infrastructure for research training of undergraduates and graduate students from a student body that is predominantly composed of members groups that are under-represented in science and engineering. A better facility will be more conducive to attracting students to modern research. The renovated laboratories will also be used to provide research experiences for undergraduates from other institutions (through a Research Experiences for Undergraduates program) and for school-teachers (through Hampton University?s Research Experiences for Teachers program).
