Argonne National Laboratory

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Argonne National Laboratory
Argonnelablogo.PNG
Established 1946
Research Type Research
Field of Research Physical science
Life science
Environmental science
Energy science
Photon science
Director Eric Isaacs
Location Argonne, Illinois
Address 9700 S. Cass Avenue
Telephone (630) 252-2000
Affiliations United States Department of Energy
University of Chicago
Jacobs Engineering
Nobel Laureates Enrico Fermi
Maria Goeppert Mayer
Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov
Website anl.gov

Argonne National Laboratory is one of the United States Department of Energy's oldest and largest science and engineering research national laboratories and is the largest in size in the Midwest (approximately twice the area of the nearby Fermilab). The laboratory is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC, which is composed of the University of Chicago and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. It is located on 1,700 acres (6.9 km²) in DuPage County, 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Chicago, Illinois, on Interstate 55, completely encircled by Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve. When it was first established it was known as the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab), and it was previously located within Red Gate Woods. Early on the lab was part of the Manhattan Project, which built America's first atomic bomb.

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[edit] Overview

Argonne currently has five main areas of focus[1][2]. Argonne's focus on these areas is meant to fulfill several governmental responsibilities in the hopes of benefiting the society at large.

  • Conducting basic scientific research to further scientists' understanding of the world we live in. Argonne conducts basic experimental and theoretical scientific research in the physical, life, and environmental sciences.
  • Building and maintaining scientific facilities that would be too expensive for a single company or university, for the use of scientists from Argonne, private industry, academia and other national laboratories, and other nations. Facilities include the Advanced Photon source, the Center for Nanoscale Materials, the Electron Microscopy Center, the Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System and the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility.
  • Argonne is one of the advanced centers for the study and research of energy technologies. Argonne is working to develop and evaluate advanced energy techniques and sciences.
  • Researching and developing solutions to certain environmental problems. Argonne attempts to manage and solve the nation's environmental problems and to promote environmental stewardship in a scientific context.
  • Contributing to national security by applying expertise in the nuclear fuel cycle, biology, chemistry, and systems analysis and modeling. Projects include developing highly sensitive instruments and technologies to detect chemical, biological, and radioactive threats and identify their sources.

Argonne scientists and engineers help advance science, engineering, and mathematics education in the United States by taking part in the training of nearly 1,000 college graduate students and post-doctoral researchers every year as part of their research and development activities. To help fulfill this end, Argonne National Laboratory was recently the facility awarded to receive the IBM Blue Gene/P.[3]

[edit] Argonne in modern media

Significant portions of the 1996 chase movie Chain Reaction were filmed in the Zero-Gradient Synchrotron ring room and the former Continuous Wave Deuterium Demonstrator laboratory.[1]

Argonne National Laboratory had a smaller facility called Argonne National Laboratory-West (or simply Argonne-West) in Idaho next to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. In 2005, they merged together to become the Idaho National Laboratory. [4]

[edit] Notable staff

Aerial view of Argonne National Laboratory

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 41°42′33″N 87°58′55″W / 41.709166°N 87.981992°W / 41.709166; -87.981992