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UMD Lab to Become Major Laser Research Center

/ 29 August 2023 /

The University of Maryland's Lab for Intense Laser-Matter Interactions has been chosen as one of 10 LaserNetUS nodes. The lab led by Physics Professor Howard Milchberg will receive an annual award for three years to fund laser lab research staff, postdocs and graduate students. Milchberg also holds joint appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics. 

LaserNetUS was established in 2018 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and is funded through the DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES). The purpose of the network is to allow U.S. and international researchers without access to high-powered and unique lasers the ability to do experiments in cooperation with the network’s facilities. In return, this leads to the advancement of research and stimulates collaboration between various research groups.

This year, UMD is one of three new nodes. As a collaborative node, Milchberg’s lab will accept proposals from other research groups and will have the opportunity to collaborate with those that best fit its scientific agenda.

"This award recognizes our lab’s broad array of laser sources and techniques and its commitment to fundamental physics understanding and student education. This has been the recipe for many well-known Maryland innovations and discoveries,” Milchberg noted. 

About the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences

The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland educates more than 8,000 future scientific leaders in its undergraduate and graduate programs each year. The college's 10 departments and nine interdisciplinary research centers foster scientific discovery with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $250 million.