Muon telescope developed at Fermilab could unlock mysteries of the Great Pyramid of Giza

Public message from the Fermilab director on Fermilab access

Dear colleagues and friends of Fermilab,

Fermilab has a tradition of being open and welcoming to staff, users, the scientific community, and residents of surrounding communities. This is who we are, and we are proud of this culture of openness. We have focused on executing our science mission through partnerships and are committed to maintaining this collaborative spirit.

At the same time, we are responsible for the safety of everyone who spends time on the Fermilab campus, as well as the security of our operations. Fermilab operates the largest accelerator complex in the United States, and that work comes with potential hazards across our campus. Furthermore, we manage a large amount of non-public information, and we take the responsibility of protecting that information very seriously. Fermilab’s personnel and research collaborators undergo special training on these hazards and challenges.

To protect our workforce, users, visitors, and the laboratory’s assets, Fermilab has implemented several restrictions to access, which most other national laboratories have already successfully implemented. We recognize that some people are frustrated with these changes, and we are working to find the balance between the necessary restrictions and the openness we pride ourselves on. In this note, I will describe the challenges, what we are doing about them, and where we want to be in the future. What is put forward here represents complete alignment with DOE and the leadership of Fermilab.

DOE’s new requirements over the past decade and Fermilab’s actions

 Changes on the world stage and our continuously advancing science mission affect Fermilab’s safety and security posture. As a federal institution, Fermilab is required to implement federal regulations and U.S. Department of Energy requirements that have been established for all DOE National Laboratories. It is our responsibility to effectively integrate these risk management controls into our mission execution, and to communicate these new practices to our internal and external stakeholders. Like other similar labs, we want to strike a balance between safe and secure operations and a welcoming environment for our scientific and community partners.

For example, DOE has provided nearly $13 million of additional funding to facilitate site visitor access and reopen Wilson Hall to the public. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed these efforts, but we are on track to complete the Wilson Hall modifications this year and a new Fermilab Welcome and Access Center in late 2024 or early 2025.

Fermilab’s status today

Today, Fermilab is pleased to continue to welcome onto the Fermilab campus public visitors showing proper identification for site access. The Batavia and Warrenville gates are open for walkers, bikers, dog walkers, and visitors to enjoy the campus, visit our bison (we have 16 new babies so far this year!), tour the science experiments and displays in the Lederman Science Center, and hike our restored prairie trails. Earlier this year, Saturday Morning Physics and other STEM activities resumed in the Ramsey Auditorium. We invested into a new welcoming badging office at the entrance of the Wilson Hall and began critical work to improve the IT systems that support and streamline the new processes. The lab’s site access requirements can be found on the website.

Our vision for the future

DOE and Fermilab leadership are committed to facilitating public access to areas of Wilson Hall as soon as security modifications are complete. We are actively working to streamline how our collaborators, visitors, and the public can access our site in a safe and welcoming way, and to clearly and frequently provide updates. We are learning from other National Laboratories that have implemented these requirements over many years. We have also established an internal task force comprised of employees and users to expedite the implementation and strengthen the communication.  We are in the process of simplifying the collection of information needed for entry and increasing the transparency of the process. In the coming weeks and months, we will be seeking input on strategy and changes to ensure safe access for all groups, leveraging many of our existing forums including the Community Advisory Board and User Committees.

We are deeply committed to our culture of openness, and we are also deeply committed to the safety of our employees, subcontractors, users, affiliates, visitors, and neighbors and to the security and stewardship of the world-class facilities, infrastructure, and data at the lab.

Thank you for sharing your views with me – I hear you, and I ask you to please be patient as we work on these important improvements. The dedication and concerns openly expressed by the Fermilab community (including our employees, partners, and neighbors) are a good example of what makes Fermilab a truly remarkable institution.

With best regards,

Lia Merminga

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is in the midst of many scientific enhancements and discoveries. On May 1, DOE Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geraldine Richmond and Principal Deputy Under Secretary Ali Douraghy visited and toured Fermilab to view firsthand the progress being made. As part of their inaugural visit to the Batavia, Illinois, lab, they joined lab leaders and researchers who lead many international projects in various stages of development, research and discovery.

“I am honored to be at Fermilab today to see great science in progress and the dedicated scientists, engineers and researchers who make these projects happen,” said Richmond, who oversees DOE’s role as the nation’s largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences. “Fermilab is a rich environment full of talented individuals who drive innovation in high-energy physics,” she added.

Their tour began at Fermilab’s particle accelerator complex, which has enabled groundbreaking discoveries for more than 50 years. The complex is being modernized with construction of the Proton Improvement Plan, or PIP-II. An essential enhancement to the lab’s particle accelerator complex, PIP-II is a leading-edge 215-meter superconducting linear accelerator that will eventually power the high-energy neutrino beam for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab. The upgrade will also enable a broad physics research program with particle beams for decades to come that could lead to fundamental discoveries in particle physics.

Richmond and Douraghy also visited Fermilab’s Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, one of the five DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Centers. SQMS is a collaboration of 28 partner institutions — national labs, academia and industry — that work together to bring transformational advances in the field of quantum information science.

Last month, Fermilab opened the Integrated Engineering Research Center, a brand-new, 80,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art lab space for engineers and technicians working on high-energy physics projects, like DUNE. DUNE is an experiment on which more than 1,300 scientists and engineers from around the world collaborate to unlock the mysteries of neutrinos.

“Fermilab is a rich environment full of talented individuals who drive innovation in high-energy physics.” – DOE Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geraldine Richmond

“Projects like DUNE that are currently under construction in Illinois and South Dakota will catapult new discoveries that will maintain the U.S. as a leader in science research,” said Douraghy.

The Under Secretary for Science and Innovation has oversight responsibilities for a $15 billion portfolio of activities across DOE’s Office of Science, applied energy programs and 13 national laboratories, the premier engines of scientific discovery and clean energy innovation. This visit to Fermilab emphasizes the key role it plays in the nation’s science ecosystem.

DOE leaders and local legislators also convened at the April event for the grand opening of the new PIP-II Cryogenic Plant Building. It will house a cryogenic plant to provide the PIP-II accelerator with liquid helium for particle acceleration. The event also celebrated the groundbreaking of the Linac Complex for the PIP-II accelerator, beginning the construction of the approximately 800,000-square-foot complex.

“I am impressed by the people I met today, and progress is evident with the lab’s work in quantum technologies, microelectronics, as well their STEM efforts,” Douraghy said at the conclusion of the visit.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

Beginning May 3, all public visitors 18 years and older coming to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory public areas will be required to present a REAL ID-compliant ID upon entry. Fermilab is required to comply with DOE’s security requirements applicable to DOE federal facilities. This includes visitors entering by car, on foot and on bicycle.

For car visitors arriving at either of the two entry gates, security will ask the driver and all adult passengers in the vehicle to show a REAL ID-compliant ID (such as an IL REAL ID driver’s license or passport) to access the site.

Fermilab outdoor public areas are open daily from sunrise to sunset. The Lederman Science Center is open Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and is closed Sundays and Fermilab holidays.

To view the latest updates on access to the public areas, activities and events, check the Visit Fermilab page of the website.

 

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is America’s premier national laboratory for particle physics research. A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, Fermilab is located near Chicago, Illinois, and operated under contract by the Fermi Research Alliance LLC. Visit Fermilab’s website at https://www.fnal.gov and follow us on Twitter @Fermilab.