Formal relationships established with Fermilab and Argonne national labs (1982)

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois.

In 1982, President Bill Monat established a Science and Technology Advisory Committee. It consisted of eight science faculty and four administrators, and it was chaired by physicist Clyde Kimball (who also served as the president’s science advisor).

Kimball possessed strong research relationships with both the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory and was knowledgeable about the many technologic and scientific industrial research firms in the region.

Monat and Provost John La Tourette envisioned a research and development corridor stretching from NIU and Kishwaukee College all the way down I-88 to Chicago. Lined with educational institutions as well as research, technology and industrial entities, the Illinois Research and Development Corridor (as it would later become known) would provide tremendous opportunities for NIU faculty and students. And chief among the corridor partners would be Fermilab and Argonne.

NIU’s involvement with Argonne dated back to the 1960s when Physics moved from Davis Hall to the new Faraday Hall, with its much enhanced facilities, and the nearly exclusive emphasis on teaching gave way to a balance of teaching and research. Much of that work took place at Argonne.

Fermilab had likewise been a research partner with NIU for some time, but it was not until NIU began its long quest for a Ph.D. in Physics that the partnership was cemented. An external review of NIU’s Ph.D. request suggested that it would have a greater chance of approval if it emphasized high energy physics (HEP), as Fermilab in Batavia was nearby and just beginning its Tevatron Collider program.

In 1986 LAS Dean James Norris approved the formation of an NIU high energy physics group to collaborate on the D-Zero experiment. David Hedin, Suzanne Willis, Daniel Kaplan and James Green were the first faculty who were members of that project; in the 1990s and early 2000s they were joined and/or replaced by Jerry Blazey, Michael Fortner, Dhiman Chakraborty and Vishnu Zutshi. The project was headed by Paul Grannis of Stony Brook University.

Concurrently, things were heating up with Argonne National Laboratory in west suburban Lemont. NIU and Argonne jointly establish a research center in plant molecular biology. NIU Biology Professor Arnold Hampel was NIU’s lead on the new biotechnology research, leading teams exploring at the molecular level such agricultural issues as pest resistance, herbicide resistance and hybridization.

Click on photos to enlarge

Dr. Clyde Kimball was science advisor to several presidents, and helped establish formal relationships with Fermi and Argonne.

Biology Professor Arnold Hampel was NIU’s lead on biotechnology research with Argonne National Laboratory.

Dr. David Hedin (right) was among the first NIU physicists to work at Fermilab. His colleague Dr. Jerry Blazey (left) later became the spokesperson for the international D-Zero project at Fermi.

NIU’s long quest for a Ph.D. in physics was helped along by a new emphasis on high-energy physics and work on Fermilab’s pioneering Tevatron Collider program.

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