Investment in Science Steady (Release)

Investment in Science Steady

The Department of Energy's FY 1997 budget, released today leaves CEBAF's budgetary outlook for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 1996 in good order. One of the highlights of the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Research budget is to sustain the High Energy and Nuclear Physics programs under which CEBAF's effort is directed.

The field of Nuclear Physics is in the Department's FY97 request for $318.5, an increase of $14 million over this year. According to Dr. Martha Krebs, Director of the Office of Energy Research, "Basic research is important to the nation's future economic competitiveness and is crucial to the nation's leadership in science and technology."

The Office of Energy Research (ER) supports the Federal Government's third largest basic research program with only the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation programs being larger. Over 18,000 scientists and engineers from almost 600 universities, companies and government laboratories performed research in 1995 at Energy Research funded laboratories.

For FY 1997 ER continues its strong commitment to science and basic research by increasing its budget request for FY 1997 by $63 million from the FY 1996 funding level.

CEBAF, in Newport News, VA is managed and operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc., a consortium of 41 universities in the southeast. CEBAF is a user facility used to study the quark structure of the atom.