Jefferson National Accelerator Facility

The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Newport News, Virginia is the nation's newest national laboratory. It is devoted to unraveling the structure of matter based on the fundamental particles of nature—quarks and gluons. The University of Richmond has a deep, long-standing relationship with JLab. Faculty and students in the Department of Physics have been involved in some of the important discoveries made at JLab for the last fifteen years, and they will be part of the next step in the evolution of the laboratory. An upgrade of the existing accelerator will open up exciting new research opportunities in the structure of matter. Richmond physicist Jerry Gilfoyle is the leader on one of the experiments that will measure the distribution of charge in the neutron, which is expected to run in the opening round of experiments.