EAST LANSING, Mich. — William Brinkman, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, will visit Michigan State University Oct. 14, meeting with university officials and researchers who oversee DOE-funded research projects worth more than $600 million.
Brinkman, formerly a senior research physicist in the Department of Physics at Princeton University, will visit the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory/Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, MSU’s Plant Research Laboratory, and the Energy and Automotive Research Laboratories.
Brinkman was scheduled to visit MSU last February, but was grounded in Washington D.C. due to a winter storm.
The visit will provide an opportunity for Brinkman to tour some of the Office of Science’s grants in operation, and discuss the status of several DOE investments, including the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, the MSU Energy Frontier Research Center and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
“Michigan State University is a national leader in research funded by the Department of Energy,” said Ian Gray, MSU’s vice president for research and graduate studies. “We are pleased to host Dr. Brinkman and brief him on the outstanding work of our faculty and researchers.”
The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, providing more than 40 percent of total funding in this vital area. It is the principal federal funding agency for the nation’s research of high-energy physics, nuclear physics and fusion energy sciences, as well as a variety of energy-related projects.
In addition to touring MSU facilities, Brinkman also will make remarks at a poster session beginning at 11 a.m. in the atrium of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory/FRIB, which is open to media.