The nuclear physics group at Abilene Christian University has been awarded a three-year renewal in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. The recent extension is for $793,000, and includes funding for a post doctoral fellowship for the first time in the history of these grants. The university has sustained budget renewals since it originated in 1982.
Other universities competing for similar funding include The University of Texas-Austin, University of Washington, MIT, Caltech and Rutgers, as well as premier national physics labs that collaborate with ACU, such as Los Alamos, Brookhaven, Jefferson and Argonne.
ACU’s nuclear physics group has a long tradition of collaborating on world-class research to understand the structure of a nucleon. The group actively engages many undergraduates in cutting-edge nuclear physics projects. The research emphasis of the ACU group is the spin structure of a proton and neutron, referred to in general as nucleons.
The group’s total funding has reached more than $6 million since it formed in 1982.
Abilene Christian is the highest-ranking university in Texas in a 2020 U.S. News & World Report benchmark focused on student success. ACU achieved Top 20 status in three of eight high-impact categories among 1,500 universities evaluated for “A Focus on Student Success” and is the only Texas institution to be ranked in five of the categories.