FRIBvolity

If you're reading this, I'm sure you've heard the news that MSU has been selected as the future site of FRIB. This is fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it take shape over the next several years. All the NSCL students are thrilled; the major advantage of being a grad student at MSU/NSCL, as opposed to a university without an on-campus lab, is that one gets the opportunity to be involved in research all the time. Not only do students here get to do experiments and analyze them (as would be the case for students at universities which don't have a national lab conveniently located on campus), but we're constantly bombarded with subliminal research experience--a substantial portion of the experiments here have local grad students involved in some capacity, so it gives us, as a student community, a feeling of connection to the daily goings-on at the lab. Example scenarios include "So-and-so will be late to the study group; her group has beam time, and she's just getting off shift." and "The [insert detector array here] group has an experiment, so let's leave cookies on This-person's desk, 'cause he'll probably be too busy to go eat before class." and "Oh, the [name of isotope] experiment was Someone-in-another-group's thesis experiment, where [something memorable] happened." It's fun to be in a research environment and to absorb research goings-on through one's very pores. For students who may want to go on to work in a national lab, it's fantastic to get this experience of what a lab actually is like on a day-to-day basis instead of just seeing it during an experiment. By this point, we already know what academic life is like, and most of us have formed a vague idea of how far inclined we are to head down the academic+research path versus the pure research path. It's nice to be able to test the other option... sort of like a combination of conventional gradute research and an internship. Given that the Department of Energy is the agency behind FRIB, this will be extra useful, since most of the national labs in nuclear physics are backed by the DOE, so students who work here during graduate school once FRIB is established will already be accustomed to the lingo and environment of a DOE lab, and there will be less of a breaking-in period if they choose to go work at the other major U.S. nuclear research labs. Additionally, since FRIB incorporates a linac, it will give accelerator students useful experience, should they wish to work on the proposed next big particle physics accelerator.
  
Everyone here's been ecstatic about being chosen as the site for FRIB. I was taking the classical mechanics subject exam yesterday when the news came in; the professor teaching the class works at the NSCL, and one of the high energy professors came in to ask him to confirm the rumor that we'd been selected for FRIB. Towards the end of the exam, the professor stepped out for a minute to find out the answer, and after we handed in our exams at the end, he announced the happy news. How often does one hand in an exam and then find out that one's favorite research facility is going to become even more awesome? Consequently, I'm wearing my "Bring FRIB to our crib" T-shirt today.
  
First one person was excited about this, then another, then two more, then... it's the FRIBonacci sequence!