Acquisition of Upgrade Equipment for the WMU Tandem Van de Graaff Laboratory

获奖资金将用于升级西密歇根大学串联货车德格拉夫加速器实验室。该实验室在帮助物理系实现其各种研究和教育目标方面发挥着关键作用。虽然加速器是功能和大量使用，它和实验室的某些组件已经过时。该补助金提供的设备的采购和实施将大大提高实验室的运作和能力，这种升级将为教师研究人员提供新的机会，并为学生提供更好的最先进的培训。目前，物理系教师利用加速器进行广泛的研究活动，包括原子物理，核物理，凝聚态物理和物理应用。加速器设施一直是并将继续是一个重要组成部分，在教师的研究，已收到外部支持。加速器研究已经在领先的物理学期刊上发表了大量论文，并为许多研究生和本科生的研究项目奠定了基础。培养未来的科学家是实验室的一项特别重要的职能。在这方面，学生提供了一个独特的实践经验，与教师导师密切合作的主要研究仪器。这样的经验是不经常提供给大多数物理学生，特别是那些在本科阶段或那些在高中。此外，来自国内和国际其他机构的研究人员经常来到WMU与部门教师合作，利用实验室进行项目。近年来，该实验室已形成了几个博士学位的基础。硕士论文项目论文项目，荣誉学院论文项目的本科物理专业，和高级导师项目的几个高中学生从卡拉马祖地区数学和科学中心。除了这些研究和研究培训用途，实验室已被用于每学期超过25年的部门的本科现代物理实验室，一般是由大二水平的学生采取的一部分，并作为高级实验室课程的一部分采取了上层本科物理专业和研究生。此外，来自地区高中和大学的学生定期访问实验室，利用加速器作为他们物理课程的一部分。在其历史上，加速器已经作为一个教学工具，从字面上数以千计的大学和高中学生。预计，除了继续和扩大加速器的研究和教育用途外，升级后的设施将有助于大学招收学生，并有助于吸引更多的外部合作者。通过其用途和应用的多样性，WMU加速器实验室将研究与教育紧密结合，并以大多数大学很少遇到的方式提供重要的推广活动。升级后的设施将有助于改善学习环境，使更多的人有机会使用最先进的仪器。

Awarded funds will be used to upgrade the Western Michigan University tandem Van de Graaff Accelerator Laboratory. This laboratory plays a key role in helping the Department of Physics to meet its various research and educational goals. While the accelerator is functional and heavily used certain components of it and the laboratory have become obsolete. Acquisition and implementation of the equipment provided by this grant will greatly enhance the operation and capabilities of the laboratory, and this upgrading will provide new opportunities for faculty researchers and better state-of-the art training for students. Currently, Department of Physics faculty utilize the accelerator for a broad spectrum of research activities including atomic physics, nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, and physics applications. The accelerator facility has been and continues to be an important component in faculty research that has received external support. Accelerator research has resulted in numerous publications in leading physics journals and has formed the basis for numerous graduate and undergraduate student research projects. The training of future scientists is a particularly important function of the laboratory. In this regard, students are provided a unique hands-on experience with major research instrumentation in close collaboration with faculty mentors. Such an experience is not often available to most physics students, especially those at the undergraduate level or those in high school. Additionally, researchers from other institutions, nationally and internationally, have frequently come to WMU to collaborate with department faculty on projects utilizing the laboratory. During recent years, the laboratory has formed the basis for several Ph.D. dissertation projects, M.A. thesis projects, Honors College thesis projects for undergraduate physics majors, and the senior mentorship projects for several high school students from the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center. Apart from these research and research training uses, the laboratory has been used every semester for more than 25 years as part of the department's undergraduate modern physics laboratory that is generally taken by sophomore level students, and as part of an advanced laboratory course taken by upper level undergraduate physics majors and by graduate students. Additionally, students from area high schools and colleges visit the laboratory regularly to make use of the accelerator as part of their physics curricula. During its history, the accelerator has served as an instructional tool to literally thousands of university and high school students. It is anticipated that, in addition to continuing and expanding the research and educational uses of the accelerator, the upgraded facility will help in the recruitment of students to the university and help to attract additional outside collaborators. Through its diversity of uses and applications the WMU accelerator laboratory closely integrates research with education, and provides important outreach activities, in a manner that is rarely encountered at most universities. The upgraded facility will help to enhance the learning environment by providing greater access to state-of-the-art instrumentation.