Skip to main content

US Department of Energy announces new Fermilab contractor






A consortium of universities and companies has been awarded the contract to manage and operate Fermilab, the US’s premier particle-physics facility. The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced on 1 October that the new contractor, Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC (FFDV), will take over operation of the lab from 1 January 2025.

FFDV consists of Fermilab’s current contractor – the University of Chicago and Universities Research Association (URA), a consortium of research universities – as well as the industrial firms Amentum Environment & Energy, Inc. and Longenecker & Associates. The conglomerate’s initial contract will last for five years but “exemplary performance” running the lab could extend that by a further decade.

“We are honoured that the Department of Energy has selected FermiForward to manage Fermilab after a rigorous contract process,” University of Chicago president Paul Alivisatos told Physics World. “FermiForward represents a new approach that brings together the best parts of Fermilab with two new industry partners, who bring broad expertise from a deep bench from across the DOE complex.”

Alivisatos notes that the inclusion of Amentum and Longenecker will strengthen the management capability of the consortium given the companies’ “exemplary record of accomplishment in project management, operations, and safety.” Longenecker, a female-led company based in Las Vegas, is part of the managerial teams currently running Sandia, Los Alamos, and Savannah River national laboratories. Virginia-based Amentum, meanwhile, has a connection to Fermilab through Greg Stephens, its former vice president, who is now Fermilab’s chief operating officer.

The choice of the new contractor comes after Fermilab has faced a series of operating and budget challenges. In 2021, the institution scored low marks on a DOE assessment of its operations. A year later, complaints emerged that the lab’s leadership was restricting access to its campus despite reduced concern about the spread of COVID-19. In July, a group of Fermilab staff whistleblowers claimed that a series of problems indicated that the lab was “doomed” without a change of management. And in late August, the lab underwent a period of limited operations to reduce a budgetary shortfall.

The Fermilab staff whistleblowers, however, see little change in the DOE’s selection of FFDV. Indeed, the key members of FFDV – the University of Chicago and URA – made up Fermi Research Alliance, the previous contractor that has overseen Fermilab’s operations since 2007.

“We understand that the only reaction by DOE to our investigative report is that of coaching the University of Chicago’s teams that steward the university’s relationships with the national labs,” the group wrote in a letter to Geraldine Richmond, DOE’s Undersecretary for Science and Innovation, which has been seen by Physics World. “By doing so, the DOE is once again showing that it is for the status-quo.”

The DOE hasn’t revealed how many bids it received or other details about the contract award. In a statement to Physics World it noted that it “cannot discuss the contract at the current time because of business sensitive information”. Fermilab declined to comment for the story.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

#HighEnergyPhysics#ParticlePhysics#QuantumPhysics#AstroparticlePhysics#ColliderPhysics
#HiggsBoson#LHC#QuantumFieldTheory#NeutrinoPhysics#PhysicsResearch#ComputationalScience
#DataScience#ScientificComputing#NumericalMethods#HighPerformanceComputing
#MachineLearningInScience#BigData#AlgorithmDevelopment#SimulationScience#ParallelComputing

Visit Our Website : hep-conferences.sciencefather.com
Nomination Link : https://hep-conferences.sciencefather.com/award-nomination/?ecategory=Awards&rcategory=Awardee
Registration Link : hep-conferences.sciencefather.com/award-registration/
Member Link : hep-conferences.sciencefather.com/conference-membership/?ecategory=Membership&rcategory=Member
Awards-Winners : hep-conferences.sciencefather.com/awards-winners/
Contact us : contact@sciencefather.com


Get Connected Here:
==================
Social Media Link
Twitter : x.com/Psciencefather
Pinterest : in.pinterest.com/physicsresearchorganisation
Blog : physicscience23.blogspot.com
Instagram : www.instagram.com/victoriaanisa1
YouTube :www.youtube.com/channel/UCzqmZ9z40uRjiPSr9XdEwMA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Physicists observe a new form of magnetism for the first time

MIT physicists have demonstrated a new form of magnetism that could one day be harnessed to build faster, denser, and less power-hungry " spintronic " memory chips. The new magnetic state is a mash-up of two main forms of magnetism: the ferromagnetism of everyday fridge magnets and compass needles, and antiferromagnetism, in which materials have magnetic properties at the microscale yet are not macroscopically magnetized. Now, the MIT team has demonstrated a new form of magnetism , termed "p-wave magnetism." Physicists have long observed that electrons of atoms in regular ferromagnets share the same orientation of "spin," like so many tiny compasses pointing in the same direction. This spin alignment generates a magnetic field, which gives a ferromagnet its inherent magnetism. Electrons belonging to magnetic atoms in an antiferromagnet also have spin, although these spins alternate, with electrons orbiting neighboring atoms aligning their spins antiparalle...
Post a Comment
Read more

new research in qauntum physics

         VISIT:https: //hep-conferences.sciencefather.com/          N ew research in  qauntum physics.                                                    Alphabet Has a Second, Secretive Quantum Computing Team Recent research in quantum physics includes the development of quantum computers, which are expected to be much more powerful than conventional computers and could revolutionize many aspects of technology, such as artificial intelligence and cryptography. Other research includes the development of quantum sensors for a variety of applications, including medical diagnostics, and the study of quantum entanglement and its potential to enable quantum computing and secure communication. Additionally, research is being conducted into the applications of quantum mechanics in materials science, such as unde...
Post a Comment
Read more

Freezing light? Italian scientists froze fastest thing in universe, here’s how

In a rare occurrence, physics made it possible to control the fastest travelling element - light. Italian scientists have managed to freeze the light, as per reports. A recent study published in a British weekly journal reportedly revealed that light can exhibit ‘ supersolid behavior ’ a unique state of matter that flows without friction while retaining a solid-like structure. The research, led by Antonio Gianfate from CNR Nanotec and Davide Nigro from the University of Pavia, marks a significant step in understanding supersolidity in light. The scientists described their findings as “just the beginning” of this exploration, as per reports. In what can be termed as ‘manipulating photons under controlled quantum conditions ’, the scientists demonstrated that light, too, can exhibit this behaviour. (A photon is a bundle of electromagnetic energy which is massless, and travel at the speed of light) How did scientists freeze light? As we know, freezing involves lowering a liquid’s tempera...
Post a Comment
Read more