Big Ten Developments

MSU awarded $550-million nuclear physics project by Energy Department

By KATHLEEN GRAY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • December 11, 2008

Michigan got some good economic news today when the U.S. Department of Energy announced that Michigan State University has been chosen as the site for a $550-million research facility that will employ at least 300 people.

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams would be at least 1,000 times more powerful than the machines now running at MSU's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. In some cases, 100,000 times more. It will be used to provide intense beams of rare isotopes for researchers which will lay the groundwork for study in a number of fields, including treating cancer and providing technology for border security.

Michigan lawmakers and university officials were thrilled with the announcement today. MSU was competing for the facility with the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago.

“We are proud to have been selected, and we look forward to partnering with the Department of Energy Office of Science to advance this important science,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said in her blog. “MSU is deeply committed to the success of this facility."

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin added in a news release, “At a moment in our history when Michigan needs signs of hope, today’s decision by the Department of Energy to build the Facility on Rare Isotope Beams at MSU fills the bill. It is the best news for Michigan in a long time.”

The cutting-edge research facility will advance the understanding of rare nuclear isotopes and the evolution of the cosmos. The new facility — expected to take about a decade to design and build and to cost an estimated $550 million — will provide research opportunities for an international community of approximately 1,000 university and laboratory scientists, postdoctoral associates and graduate students.

Design of the facility will begin immediately with construction expected to begin in 2013.

Click to expand...

IBM to locate global computer programming center at Michigan State University

Jan. 13, 2009

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Big Blue has found a fertile spot to grow in the land of green and white, with IBM’s decision to locate an application development center on the campus of Michigan State University.

The first of its kind for the company in the United States, the IBM facility is the product of an agreement to expand MSU’s recruiting, research and educational partnerships with the information technology giant. IBM already is a top employer of MSU graduates.

The IBM Global Delivery Center for Application Services will be housed on the second floor of the former MSU Federal Credit Union headquarters on the south end of campus. A full-service MSUFCU branch on the first floor will continue to operate there.

IBM expects to start operations in the first quarter of 2009, with 100 workers projected to be on board by June. State of Michigan estimates predict up to 1,500 new direct and indirect jobs over the next five years.

...

The application development center will occupy the 8,400-square-foot second floor of the former headquarters of the MSUFCU, which last year moved into its new facility on West Road in East Lansing. Additional expansion space for IBM is available in the building’s basement, credit union officials said.

Click to expand...