May 18, 2018
In a visit to Jefferson Lab on Thursday, May 17, U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes met with laboratory representatives and researchers and got an exclusive preview to Saturday’s biennial open house event.
From chatting with graduate students to performing simulations of supercomputing to interacting with experiments in 3D, U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes enjoyed a full day of activities at Jefferson Lab on Thursday.
U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes serves as the DOE’s principal advisor on energy policy and on a wide array of existing and emerging energy technologies. Menezes is responsible for driving transformative energy policy and technology solutions through coordinated planning, management and performance of the DOE’s energy programs.
Starting off his visit to Jefferson Lab with a brief introduction to the laboratory and its research portfolio, the under secretary then took lunch with a group of graduate students who were based at Jefferson Lab conducting research toward their Ph.D.s. The students, who were pursuing their degrees at local, national and international universities, were conducting research in a range of related fields, from nuclear physics to accelerator science. Annually, more than one third of all Ph.D.s in nuclear physics come from research conducted at Jefferson Lab.
The under secretary took a tour of lab facilities, previewing many of the stops that will be open to the public in the Discover Jefferson Lab: Exploring the Nature of Matter open house event on Saturday, May 19. The tour made a stop in the Data Center, where the under secretary tried his hand at a supercomputing simulator designed by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Lab.
Then, he visited the CEBAF Accelerator and its control center before making stops in each of the three experimental halls that will be open for the event: Experimental Halls B, C and D. Finally, he dropped in to see the SRF Institute, where accelerator components are designed, built and tested. All of these areas will be open to the public on Saturday.
At the end of the day, Under Secretary Menezes attended an open house preview event attended by local dignitaries and business leaders. The event provided early access to exhibits that highlight many of the laboratory’s key innovative technologies, as well as the lab’s commercial and industrial partners who are an integral part of the Hampton Roads innovation ecosystem.
While the lab’s primary mission is basic research into the structure of matter, many of the specialized technologies developed in pursuit of that mission have applications in wide-ranging areas, such as medical imaging, nanomaterials and energy. Jefferson Lab inventors hold 150 patents and have licensed technologies for commercialization to eight companies.
Menezes capped his visit by giving the event keynote, highlighting the important role of technology transfer in the Department of Energy’s mission and its commitment to promoting the movement of innovative technologies to the marketplace.
Contact: Lauren Hansen, Jefferson Lab Communications Office, 757-269-7689, lhansen@jlab.org