A state-of the-art, $962,000 optical-measurement facility based at the University of Colorado at Boulder funded by the W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles will be dedicated on campus at the JILA facility June 28.
A joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, JILA was founded in 1962. JILA is world-renowned for its innovative developments in lasers and optical science.
Speakers at the June 28 ceremony will include Chancellor Richard L. Byyny, CU-Boulder Associate Vice Chancellor and Graduate School Dean Carol Lynch, Mercedes Talley, senior program officer of the W.M. Keck Foundation and Karen Brown, deputy director of NIST.
The dedication will held at 11 a.m. at the Keck Laboratory located in B131 of the JILA lab wing. JILA is located south of Folsom Field.
"Much of the laboratory work is designed for calibrating and characterizing optical instruments such as coating devices and lasers," said Alan Gallagher, chair of JILA. "In addition to supporting CU and JILA research and training, the Keck Optical Laboratory will be used for the Optical Sciences and Engineering Program, which will offer significant new learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from a number of departments."
Through the support of the W.M. Keck Foundation, the 500-square-foot facility will make it possible for CU and JILA to maintain their positions at the leading edge of optics research, Gallagher said.
The W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles is one of the nation's largest philanthropic organizations. Established in 1954 by the late William Myron Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Co., the foundation's grants are focused primarily on breakthrough research in science, engineering and medicine.
Some of CU聮s most distinguished faculty members will be involved in the exciting work of the W.M. Keck Optical Measurement Laboratory, said Chancellor Byyny. "This will help us build on our strong research in optical science."
In 1995, JILA was the site of the world's first creation of the Bose-Einstein condensate by JILA fellows Carl Wieman, distinguished professor of physics at CU-Boulder, and Eric Cornell, a NIST physicist and professor adjoint of physics, and their scientific team of students. BEC is a new form of matter, first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1924, and the achievement has led to a broad range of BEC studies around the world.
"This W.M. Keck award reinforces the cross-disciplinary and innovative research conducted here at the University of Colorado," said President John Buechner. "CU's total learning environment fosters this kind of inquiry and discovery."
A common thread throughout much of JILA's work is the use of lasers and other optical devices, said JILA fellow James Faller, NIST senior scientist and CU-Boulder professor adjoint of physics. "The new laboratory will provide a world-class resource for optical measurement.
"One of JILA's great strengths is its supporting facilities of world-class instrument and electronics shops," Faller said. "In the same way that these shops allow scientists to conduct experiments that would be difficult to accomplish anywhere else, the optical measurement capabilities provided by the new Keck laboratory will dramatically enhance our ability to carry out world-class science."
The Keck Optical Laboratory is equipped with a wide array of instruments and equipment, including a scanning electron microscope, an atomic force microscope, an optical microscope, polishing and grinding fixtures, an optical spectrum analyzer, an oscilloscope, a clean room and an optics room.