Up from Nothing is the story of the Michigan State University Cyclotron Laboratory and its growth from the appointment of a single individual in 1958 to when the university earned the right to build the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) in 2008.
The cyclotron laboratory at MSU has been known for years as the best university nuclear physics laboratory in the United States, and perhaps in the world. But very few, even in its hometown of East Lansing, know how it achieved that status or why it prospered when laboratories at many other famous universities faded.
In this book Austin, a nuclear physicist who has been at the laboratory since the beginning of its ascent, gives us a remarkable story. It begins with an exceptional individual, Henry Blosser, who founded the laboratory, built a cyclotron accelerator of uniquely high precision, and recruited a team of nuclear physicists that used it to establish the laboratory’s reputation. Its credibility led to a sequence of accelerators, each operating in a different sub?eld while continuing a tradition of forefront science, and to a laboratory culture that fostered the courage and foresight to compete for the FRIB in the face of daunting odds.
ContentsForewordAbout the AuthorGlossaryChapter 1. FRIB: The Improbable AdventureChapter 2. The Opportunity and the WillChapter 3. The MSU Physics Strategy, 1955–62Chapter 4. Building the Cyclotron Laboratory, 1963–65Chapter 5. Cyclotron Laboratory ResearchChapter 6. The K50 Era, 1965–79Chapter 7. The K50: Its Golden Years, 1970–79Chapter 8. Beginning of the Superconducting EraChapter 9. The Midwestern CollaborationChapter 10. The NSAC Process and Phase IIChapter 11. Making It All WorkChapter 12. The K500 Experimental ProgramChapter 13. The Phase II ProjectChapter 14. The Next Step: Coupled Cyclotrons AgainChapter 15. The Next Big ThingChapter 16. The RIA/FRIB Competition: Argonne and NSCL/MSUChapter 17. Looking Back: Building upon Increasing StrengthChapter 18. Looking Forward: What’s in It for Us—The Nation and Society?Supplement. Behind-the-Scenes Views of the Cyclotron LaboratoryAppendicesNotesNotes on SourcesThanks and Appreciation