<p>The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has shipped a $199 million proposal to run its operations from 2008 to 2012 to the National Science Foundation.</p>
<p>Headquartered at Florida State University, the mag lab got the green light in February from NSF for a five-year extension of its hold on the facility, which houses 12 superconducting and resistive magnets that are the most powerful in the world.</p>
<p>The $40 million a year plan forwarded to NSF would stretch the research capacities of the mag lab and set the stage to spin off new partnerships with, and build additional magnets at, other major U.S. scientific facilities.</p>
<p>"It's a substantial increase. We'll need to defend that request," mag lab director Greg Boebinger said on Wednesday. NSF will review the proposal and decide probably by August 2007 what dollars the lab will receive and what research directions it can pursue.</p>
<p>"Do I think we'll get every dollar we ask for? We start with how exciting each of these dollars we spent would be," said Boebinger. "One of the big initiatives for the mag lab is to continue to build it as a national asset and in a sense take magnets to the nation."</p>
<p>On the horizon for the mag lab, where interdisciplinary collaboration is the norm, would be basic and applied research in areas as varied as studying the magnetism in neutrons to advance computer hard-drive storage, decoding viruses for potential pharmaceutical advances and exploring new and stronger materials to build more efficient cars and energy systems.</p>
<p>One of several suggested spin-offs is a $30 million to $40 million magnet lab to be located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which has the world's leading neutron science facility. FSU's team has the magnet knowledge, and it's about $1 billion less to build a magnet facility at Oak Ridge than bring a major neutron facility to Tallahassee. The costs would be independent of the $199 million request.</p>
<p>The mag lab currently is under a $128 million, five-year NSF contract for its base operations. It's a cooperative program with the University of Florida and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and hosts about 1,000 visiting researchers a year from all over the world. It has been at FSU since 1990, after a competitive process resulted in its relocation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>The mag lab of the future will be refining its technology - tucked within the $199 million request is project after project that would require new magnets, new microscopes and new hires.</p>
<p>It recently received a $11.7 million NSF grant to construct the next generation of simpler, cheaper to run magnets, and the relocated Applied Superconductivity Center is newly attached to the facility. It also trains students and will be pursuing more world-class scholars.</p>
<p>Boebinger is hopeful the state, that provided the mag lab in 2004 with $10 million to update infrastructure, will continue its investment in the facility. He said Florida receives five dollars in federal funding and economic benefits for every dollar put into the mag lab, according to an economic development study.</p>
<p>"It's an act of faith," said Boebinger of using taxpayers' money for basic scientific research. "Corporations are spectacular at developing existing knowledge ...but I don't think the average person or politician understands where the initial knowledge is discovered. It's discovered in universities primarily."</p>
<p>From the Tallahasee Democrat: <a href="http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061017/BREAKINGNEWS/610170358%5B/url%5D">http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061017/BREAKINGNEWS/610170358</a></p>
<p>Contact Diane Hirth at (850) 671-6546 or <a href="mailto:dhirth@tallahassee.com">dhirth@tallahassee.com</a></p>