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The Department of Energy’s 17 National Laboratories are powerhouses of science and technology whose researchers tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges. The Laboratories support scientists and engineers from academia, government, and industry with access to specialized equipment, world-class research facilities, and skilled technical staff. Together, they are working to solve some of the world’s greatest scientific challenges.

From innovations in energy technologies and sustainable building design to medical discoveries and improved national security, National Laboratory scientists and engineers are inventing solutions that make America and the world safer, healthier, and more sustainable.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s 17 National Laboratories lead the nation in advancing the frontiers of scientific knowledge, keeping our nation secure, and fueling our clean energy economy. The innovation at the heart of the Laboratories’ past and future success benefits from the fusion of diverse talents and inclusive perspectives.

The Department of Energy’s 17 National Laboratories are powerhouses of science and technology.

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Company laboratories fall into three clear categories: research laboratories, development laboratories, and test laboratories.

Research laboratories carry out both basic and applied research work. They usually support a company as a whole, rather than any one division or department. They may be located at a considerable distance from any other part of the company and report to the highest levels of corporate management or even to the board of directors. AT&T Bell Laboratories , the research arm of American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), is an outstanding example. There the transistor and coaxial cable were developed, pioneer work in satellite communications was carried out, and many computer innovations have been developed.

Development laboratories are specifically committed to the support of particular processes or product lines. They are normally under the direct control of the division responsible for manufacture and marketing and are often located close to the manufacturing area. Frequently used as problem solvers by many sections of each company, development laboratories maintain close contacts with people in manufacturing, advertising, marketing, sales, and other departments with responsibilities for products or processes.

Test laboratories may serve a whole company or group of companies or only a single manufacturing establishment. They are responsible for monitoring the quality of output. This often requires chemical, physical, and metallurgical analyses of incoming materials, as well as checks at every stage of a process. These laboratories may be a part of a manufacturing organization, but many companies give them an independent status.

The pattern followed by different countries varies widely. The general policy of the U.S . government has been not to set up laboratories of its own, even for military work, but to offer research and development contracts, usually on the basis of competitive bidding, to private companies. The most important reason for this has been a belief that the right place to develop equipment is very close to the place at which it will eventually be manufactured.

There are exceptions to the rule. One is the type of laboratory represented by the National Bureau of Standards , a central authority on problems of measurement and standardization . Another is the type of laboratory supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture , set up by the government in the belief that research in this field is necessary but that the industry had neither the finances nor the organization to maintain it. The continuing support of successive administrations has resulted in a large and authoritative body carrying out research over a wide field for the benefit of the farming community and thus, indirectly, of the whole nation.

A third type of government laboratory is represented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and its successors, the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Research. In this case the U.S. government recognized a situation of potential danger and also opportunity of such a nature that it was not practicable for it to be handled by private individuals. It therefore set up a body to deal with the situation, allocating funds directly and maintaining close control of the objectives and timing of research. A similar challenge is faced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . Although much of the detailed research and development work is contracted to private industry, overall control, as well as much of the most important work, is handled directly by the central organization.

A different type of policy has been followed in the United Kingdom . A chain of government laboratories supports the requirements of the armed forces and carries out a great deal of the basic and applied research from which new weapons and military techniques emerge. The government laboratories play a major part in negotiating and monitoring the contracts placed with private industry for the eventual development and production of equipment for the armed forces.

In addition to the government laboratories that focus on military R and D, the U.K. government supports civilian establishments such as the National Engineering Laboratory. These have a considerable degree of independence in selecting projects that will bring the greatest benefit to industry as a whole, and their results are made available to all. They maintain close liaison with the research associations (see below Research associations ) and with private industry and attempt to concentrate their work in areas that for one reason or another are not covered elsewhere.

In Germany , as in the United Kingdom, defense research is the responsibility of a chain of government laboratories, but they are much smaller. Most of the work is done for them on contract by the research associations. They place very little research with private industry and call upon it only in the later stages of development.

In Japan there is a chain of laboratories that serves the needs of government departments. They work closely with the research associations that support particular industries. The military laboratories carry out the bulk of defense research and development themselves, and they are also responsible for the placing of contracts with private industry. These are usually confined to the later stages of development and are expected to lead almost directly to production.

The French system is similar, but the directly controlled government laboratories are even smaller and do little more than direct and coordinate work done by the research associations.

In spite of differences in organization, the day-to-day conduct of government-sponsored research and development in all countries has much in common. In every case, a comparatively small number of government employees keep in constant touch with the whole of the scientific and technical community and dispense contracts in the way they consider will make the best use of the resources available in the broad national interest. The fact that in some countries it is done in laboratories under direct governmental control, in others in those under private control, and in yet others in those in which responsibility is split is of secondary importance. In every case, government support is important. Even in the United States , with its relatively few government laboratories, government research contracts account for almost half of all R and D expenditures.

The NOAA Research Network

Labs & Programs

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As the primary research and development organization within NOAA, NOAA Research explores the Earth and atmosphere from the surface of the sun to the depths of the ocean.

We enable better forecasts, earlier warnings for natural disasters, and a greater understanding of the Earth providing unbiased science to manage the environment better, nationally and globally.

Our role within NOAA is to provide products and services that describe and predict changes in the environment. Research results allow decision makers to make effective judgments in order to prevent the loss of human life and conserve and manage natural resources while maintaining a strong economy.

We have an internal network of labs, programs and offices to manage and conduct research. We also have several formal partnerships with Cooperative Institutes to enhance our research capabilities.

Find a Lab or Program

Click the Icons to learn more about our labs, programs, and cooperative institutes.

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The NOAA Research Laboratories conduct an integrated program of research, technology development, and services to improve understanding of the Earth System. The laboratories and their field stations are located across the country and around the world.

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Program Offices

Our Program Offices are located at NOAA’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Our Programs find and fund research to transition research products into operations, to meet NOAA & OAR Strategic Objectives and to further our understanding of the Earth System.

• The Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR)
• Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI)
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University of Maryland, College Park

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Mississippi State University

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Cooperative Institutes

Cooperative Institutes are located at institutions whose geographic expanse extends from Hawaii to Maine and Washington to Florida. Currently, NOAA supports 16 Cooperative Institutes consisting of 80 universities, and research institutions across 33 states, the District of Columbia, US Territories, and Canada.

Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Seattle, WA Visit Website >

Earth Systems Resource Laboratories Boulder, CO  Visit Website >

National Severe Storms Laboratory Norman, OK Visit Website >

Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory Ann Arbor, MI Visit Website >

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Princeton, NJ Visit Website >

Air Resources Laboratory College Park, MD Visit Website >

NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory Miami, FL Visit Website >

NOAA Research Program Offices Silver Spring, MD

• Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) >
• Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES) >
• Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem Resources Studies (CIMERS) >
• The Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies (CIMRS) >
• The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) >
• Cooperative Institute for Earth System Research and Data Science (CIESRDS) >
• The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA)>
• Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO) >
• The Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) >
• Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) >
• Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) >  
• Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) >
• Northern Gulf Institute (NGI) >
• Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies >
• The Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS) >
• The Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System (CIMES) >  

Office of Research, Transition & Application

The  Office of Research, Transition, and Application (ORTA) fully leverages NOAA’s R&D enterprise to serve NOAA’s mission and benefit society by accelerating and facilitating the transition of R&D within NOAA to operations, applications, commercialization, and other uses. It also accomplishes this by working to develop and implement policies that guide and manage transition in NOAA. ORTA includes the Uncrewed Systems Research Transition Office , Technology Partnerships Office , and Quantitative Observing System Assessment Program . ORTA also provides direct support for R&D transition policies and guidance across NOAA.

NOAA Technology Partnerships Office

The  NOAA Technology Partnerships Office,  or TPO, serves the needs of both NOAA inventors and U.S. companies looking to partner with NOAA or license our technologies. Located in Silver Spring, MD, the NOAA TPO oversees both the  Small Business Innovation Research Program  and the  Technology Transfer Program  for NOAA.

Office of Science Support

The  Office of Science Support  maintains OAR and NOAA’s role as a leader in environmental observations and modeling by executing several functions that align research and development (R&D) to NOAA’s mission, and enhance the tracking and accountability of NOAA’s R&D to ensure the credibility of R&D outcomes. OSS encompases the  Cooperative Institute Office ,  NOAA Science Advisory Board,   Scientific Integrity ,  NOAA Central Library , and direct support for R&D analysis and policy.

Learn more about OAR Labs & Programs

Take a deep dive into how we achieve organizational excellence in our Labs & Programs. Our Scientific Reviews page provides granular detail in videos, documents, and webpages about each institution and the science they conduct to support the NOAA mission. 

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• 26 June 2024

The strategy behind one of the most successful labs in the world

• Luka Gebel 0 ,
• Chander Velu 1 &
• Antonio Vidal-Puig 2

Luka Gebel is a PhD candidate at King’s College London and incoming assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Global Business School for Health, University College London.

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Chander Velu is professor of innovation and economics at the Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Antonio Vidal-Puig is professor of molecular nutrition and metabolism at the Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Biochemist John Kendrew working on a structural model of a protein at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, in the 1960s. Credit: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

The Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK, is a world leader in basic biology research. The lab’s list of breakthroughs is enviable, from the structure of DNA and proteins to genetic sequencing. Since its origins in the late 1940s, the institute — currently with around 700 staff members — has produced a dozen Nobel prizewinners, including DNA decipherers James Watson, Francis Crick and Fred Sanger. Four LMB scientists received their awards in the past 15 years: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan for determining the structure of ribosomes, Michael Levitt for computer models of chemical reactions, Richard Henderson for cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and Gregory Winter for work on the evolution of antibodies (see Figure S1 in Supplementary information; SI). Between 2015 and 2019, more than one-third (36%) of the LMB’s output was in the top 10% of the world’s most-cited papers 1 .

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Nature 630 , 813-816 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02085-2

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Quinquennial Review 2021 (MRC LMB, 2021).

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Understanding the mechanisms of cellular function and their dysfunction in disease requires a detailed picture of the molecular interactions in cells. In particular, we need imaging tools with single-molecule sensitivity, molecular-scale resolution, and dynamic imaging capability to allow direct visualization of molecular interactions in cells, as well as tools that can simultaneously image large numbers of genes, ideally at the genome scale, to probe how collective actions of these molecules give rise to cellular and tissue functions. The research in the Zhuang laboratory is aimed at developing such imaging methods and applying them to problems of biomedical interest.

Students and postdoctoral fellows in the Zhuang laboratory apply their diverse backgrounds in chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering to develop novel imaging methods, molecular probes, and image analysis algorithms, and to exploit these tools to study a variety of interesting biological problems, ranging from the structure of chromatin and chromosomes and the regulation of gene expression to sub-cellular structures in neurons and neuronal connectivity. Our current research is focused in three major areas: (1) super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, (2) single-cell transcriptome and genome imaging, (3) and single-molecule biology.

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Future space missions could use quantum technology to track water on Earth, explore the composition of moons and other planets, or probe mysterious cosmic phenomena.

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, a first-of-its-kind facility aboard the International Space Station, has taken another step toward revolutionizing how quantum science can be used in space. Members of the science team measured subtle vibrations of the space station with one of the lab’s onboard tools — the first time ultra-cold atoms have been employed to detect changes in the surrounding environment in space.

The study , which appeared in Nature Communications on Aug. 13, also reports the longest demonstration of the wave-like nature of atoms in freefall in space.

The Cold Atom Lab science team made their measurements with a quantum tool called an atom interferometer, which can precisely measure gravity, magnetic fields, and other forces. Scientists and engineers on Earth use this tool to study the fundamental nature of gravity and advance technologies that aid aircraft and ship navigation. (Cell phones, transistors, and GPS are just a few other major technologies based on quantum science but do not involve atom interferometry.)

Physicists have been eager to apply atom interferometry in space because the microgravity there allows longer measurement times and greater instrument sensitivity, but the exquisitely sensitive equipment has been considered too fragile to function for extended periods without hands-on assistance. The Cold Atom Lab, which is operated remotely from Earth, has now shown it’s possible.  

“Reaching this milestone was incredibly challenging, and our success was not always a given,” said Jason Williams, the Cold Atom Lab project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It took dedication and a sense of adventure by the team to make this happen.”

Space-based sensors that can measure gravity with high precision have a wide range of potential applications. For instance, they could reveal the composition of planets and moons in our solar system, because different materials have different densities that create subtle variations in gravity.

This type of measurement is already being performed by the U.S.-German collaboration GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on), which detects slight changes in gravity to track the movement of water and ice on Earth. An atom interferometer could provide additional precision and stability, revealing more detail about surface mass changes.

Precise measurements of gravity could also offer insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two major cosmological mysteries. Dark matter is an invisible substance five times more common in the universe than the “regular” matter that composes planets, stars, and everything else we can see. Dark energy is the name given to the unknown driver of the universe’s accelerating expansion.

“Atom interferometry could also be used to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity in new ways,” said University of Virginia professor Cass Sackett, a Cold Atom Lab principal investigator and co-author of the new study. “This is the basic theory explaining the large-scale structure of our universe, and we know that there are aspects of the theory that we don’t understand correctly. This technology may help us fill in those gaps and give us a more complete picture of the reality we inhabit.”

About the size of a minifridge, the Cold Atom Lab launched to the space station in 2018 with the goal of advancing quantum science by putting a long-term facility in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit. The lab cools atoms to almost absolute zero, or minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273 degrees Celsius). At this temperature, some atoms can form a Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter in which all atoms essentially share the same quantum identity. As a result, some of the atoms’ typically microscopic quantum properties become macroscopic, making them easier to study.

Quantum properties include sometimes acting like solid particles and sometimes like waves. Scientists don’t know how these building blocks of all matter can transition between such different physical behaviors, but they’re using quantum technology like what’s available on the Cold Atom Lab to seek answers.

In microgravity, Bose-Einstein condensates can reach colder temperatures and exist for longer, giving scientists more opportunities to study them. The atom interferometer is among several tools in the facility enabling precision measurements by harnessing the quantum nature of atoms.

Due to its wave-like behavior, a single atom can simultaneously travel two physically separate paths. If gravity or other forces are acting on those waves, scientists can measure that influence by observing how the waves recombine and interact.

“I expect that space-based atom interferometry will lead to exciting new discoveries and fantastic quantum technologies impacting everyday life, and will transport us into a quantum future,” said Nick Bigelow, a professor at University of Rochester in New York and Cold Atom Lab principal investigator for a consortium of U.S. and German scientists who co-authored the study.

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL designed and built Cold Atom Lab, which is sponsored by the Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. BPS pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations that are not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomena under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth. 

To learn more about Cold Atom Lab, visit:

https://coldatomlab.jpl.nasa.gov/

Calla Cofield Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-808-2469 [email protected]

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How China Built Tech Prowess: Chemistry Classes and Research Labs

Stressing science education, China is outpacing other countries in research fields like battery chemistry, crucial to its lead in electric vehicles.

By Keith Bradsher

Reporting from Changsha, Beijing and Fuzhou, China

China’s domination of electric cars, which is threatening to start a trade war, was born decades ago in university laboratories in Texas, when researchers discovered how to make batteries with minerals that were abundant and cheap.

Companies from China have recently built on those early discoveries, figuring out how to make the batteries hold a powerful charge and endure more than a decade of daily recharges. They are inexpensively and reliably manufacturing vast numbers of these batteries, producing most of the world’s electric cars and many other clean energy systems.

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Starting from scratch: how do you build a world-class research lab, starting with nothing and aiming for bell labs..

John Timmer - Jul 8, 2015 1:45 pm UTC

What does it cost to build a research center from scratch these days? Gerry Rubin, who runs the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus in Virginia, estimated that his organization will spend a few  billion dollars before it's clear if HHMI's research will work out. Ken Herd, who helped set up GE's new research center in Rio de Janeiro, said the building alone carried a $150 million bill.

But a steep pricetag is merely the start. While securing funds is a massive initial barrier for any new facility, a modern world-class lab also needs the right combination of appeal for researchers, planning, and flexibility for when said planning doesn't work out. And on top of that, would-be lab builders better start out with  a lot of institutional support.

Supporting a new history

These days, many research centers are outgrowths of something that already exists. For example, in response to a state bioscience initiative, organizations like the  Mayo Clinic ,  Scripps Research Institute , and the  Max Planck Institute opened research centers in Florida. In these cases, there's already strong institutional support for research, and the organization is largely transplanting an existing research model to a new location.

To an extent, this is the situation Herd and his team faced when GE started considering Brazil as its next destination. GE has a long history of research at Niskayuna, New York that stretches back over a century, and the company had previously taken its research efforts international in places like Shanghai, Bangalore, and Munich. On top of this pedigree, GE also had a key bit of institutional support for its Brazil efforts. It was CEO Jeffrey Immelt who first suggested opening a research center there.

But not every research center is a clear outgrowth of a structure that already exists. Massachusetts' Broad Institute, one of the leading US centers for genome sequencing and research, didn't exist prior to this century. While a number of faculty at Harvard and MIT were doing genomics work, this mostly involved individual labs and small teams. The Boston area as a whole used to lack a facility for the sorts of massive, high-throughput work that the Broad now excels at.

Starting the institution involved bringing together faculty from these two schools and finding benefactors in the form of Eli and Edythe Broad, who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to support the effort. Government support played a role here as well: the National Institute of Health had made genome sequencing a research priority, and the NIH has the largest non-military research budget in the world. While there was no guarantee that Broad researchers would get some of that money, the strong backing of Harvard and MIT made the odds favorable.

The HHMI in Virginia is an example of an even more audacious attempt to start something new. The team behind that facility used a gift of stock from the late Howard Hughes to become a leading funder of biomedical research. For years, HHMI pursued a model where it funded researchers who were already at universities or other institutions. Hughes would pay the university for the upkeep of the lab and provide the researcher with funding so that they could pursue higher-risk projects. The researcher wouldn't have to go anywhere, and HHMI simply paid to support a pre-existing infrastructure. This meant that Hughes was never directly responsible for the administration and upkeep of any facilities.

The system seemed to work well, so why did HHMI decide to create its first physical research institute? Rubin said the decision was a product of circumstances. "The NIH budget had just doubled, and most scientists who were worthy of funding were able to obtain funding—it was a more optimistic time, certainly than we're in now," he said. "Our endowment had gone up, and we have to spend a certain percentage of our endowment."

So HHMI could potentially fund more researchers, but it didn't seem like the best way for its money to have an impact on research. Rubin, in consultation with other management at HHMI, decided to instead open a new research center, modeled on Bell Labs and the UK's Medical Research Council lab. Faculty would not get tenure, and many of them would jump back-and-forth between Janelia and the academic world. Many of the researchers present would be focused on technology development; others would simply visit Janelia for months to a few years in order to complete specific projects using its resources. Most importantly,  none of the staff would need to write grants—all the funding would come from HHMI.

That last example is a radical departure from how most research institutions worked. But Rubin had the support of other senior members of staff at HHMI, and they even convinced the organization's trustees that the approach was a good idea.

Location, location, location

Of course, it's not enough to simply decide you want to build a research center and find others who agree. You have to fill these facilities with people and establish the right environment for them to get things done. And that involves a combination of location and culture.

You might think that location wouldn't matter for science, but it can be absolutely critical. A place like the Broad Institute, tucked right in near Harvard and MIT, benefits greatly from its location. Researchers there can easily interact with the faculty at the neighboring institutions and benefit from the seminars and faculty visits that go on there. People who finish graduate work or post-docs at the universities can take jobs at the Broad without disrupting their lives. All the things that attract people to Cambridge in the first place—access to culture, good schools, plenty of jobs for spouses, and so on—also work in the Broad's favor.

Similarly, GE's Rio de Janeiro research center has the city to provide a compelling draw. GE's Herd told Ars that the company had done extensive research on possible locations, looking at areas with pre-existing research talent and universities with programs that matched the technical and engineering needs of GE. The site in Rio is located on an island with the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; the researchers can take interns from its students and do collaborations with its faculty.

The city is also attempting to develop a tech park at the location.  The research center for Petrobras, a major energy company based in the city, is visible across the curve of a bay from GE's location. And as one of the earliest commercial research centers in Brazil, GE's new facility has attracted a number of Brazilians who have done PhDs overseas (in places like Japan and the US), but are looking to return home. "Fifteen to twenty percent of our hires are PhDs coming back from outside of Brazil that we hired when they were working in the US or Europe or Asia," Herd told Ars. For half of the researchers we talked to, this involved leaving excellent jobs in other countries.

In contrast, location was a major worry for HHMI's Rubin. The Janelia research campus is nearly an hour into the suburbs of Washington, DC and not located near any other major research institutions. While that might help researchers focus on their projects, it's not the sort of location that will provide a huge draw on its own—people are more likely to decide to work there and then learn to live with the location, not the other way around. "They were skeptical you could build a first-class research institution out in suburban northern Virginia, rather than being in a university," Rubin told Ars.

Establishing culture

Things don't end once you secure the ability to put up some walls and choose a lucrative place to do so. Today, many research institutions use the dominant research model. They're small, investigator-led labs that receive significant support through outside grants. These type of facilities don't involve a radical change in the current research culture.

Even when following this roadmap, starting new isn't easy. For instance while GE has a long history of industrial research, Brazil doesn't. "A research center in a private company in Brazil is something relatively new," Transportation program leader Lucas Malta told Ars. "The largest research centers here were all government funded, so this is something new." For GE specifically, most of the hires were also new to the company even if the overall structure would be familiar for GE at large. "Most of us came from other companies or from academia," Malta said. "It was another very challenging thing as well, because you didn't have anyone with a lot of connections with the rest of the structure. So you had to start making those connections yourself as a total outsider."

So, as software engineer Camila Nunes put it, "GE is big, and you needed this culture of making a lot of calls" in order to find out who's working on what problems and where the expertise within the company exists. "Communication, it's an issue, because there are many people, and there is overlapping expertise," she said. "You have to guarantee that what I'm doing here is not the same as people are doing elsewhere."

In contrast, the Broad and Janelia efforts are part of (relatively) small non-profits, so there's no larger organization for researchers to fit into. But in many ways, their approach to research is alien to your average PhD, which can create its own set of challenges.

For example, the Broad has a singular focus on high-productivity—getting as much sequence out of its equipment as possible. To enable that, every single lab bench is outfitted identically, and each piece of hardware on it is always placed in the same location, down to the pipette tips. That way, anyone on staff can walk up to any bench and start being productive. For someone coming out of a small research lab, where individuality is generally prized, the whole setup would be a bit odd.

At the time I visited, the vast majority of the sequencing equipment was also identical—rows and rows of machines from Illumina. There was some other equipment around for special projects or testing purposes, but the focus was on having a single type of hardware that everyone knew how to use. In addition, rather than working full-time on a research project, the people who perform the sequencing have a schedule where they work on generating sequence for a set period of weeks, and then get time to work on personal projects they think could improve the speed or efficiency of the work there.

At HHMI's Janelia, there are also some significant differences with a normal academic institute. The biggest two may be the notable lack of tenure and an emphasis on researchers continuing to work at the bench, rather than simply teaching, supervising students, and writing grants.

Getting everyone to buy in to these approaches wasn't guaranteed. Rubin was concerned that some of the differences keep faculty from joining Janelia. "But my attitude at the point was that if more than 10 percent of the people thought it was a good idea, it probably wasn't radical enough to be worth doing," he joked. "Our trustees were basically willing to say 'well, that's a model that's worth testing,' even though they knew full well they were basically committing a couple of billion dollars to build a campus and run it for long enough to find out whether the idea would be good enough."

Achieving liftoff

Once everything is in place, there's still a lot of time and effort required between when the research center is opened and when work starts getting done. HHMI's Rubin, for example, didn't start planning for research goals or hiring people until construction was under way. So in addition to worries about whether he could recruit faculty, Rubin had to deal with lots of practicalities: "In building a place from scratch, you have to do everything, like who's going to run the food service, who's going to clean the building. You're building an entire free standing entity, it's very different than adding a department to the already well established infrastructure at a university."

Today Janelia is now fully staffed, and important research is going on there—including one approach to microscopy that helped get its developer a Nobel Prize (though Rubin said, "That's like getting on the honor roll of your junior high report card."). "I'm very happy with what we achieved," Rubin told Ars, "but there's a lot of places we could have failed."

In Brazil, things are just getting started. While the facility is complete and staff has boomed from about 15 to 150, that's still only about a third of the facility's capacity. Only one of the lab spaces has its full complement of equipment, and there's a huge room, ultimately meant to hold a hyperbaric chamber, that currently sits empty.

GE's Herd, however, said the company was committing more resources than usual to the Brazil project. "One thing we learned from prior centers is that if we open a center and the grow it on a pay-as-you-go basis—and by that I mean an annual basis to see how much funding is coming in for programs and then staffing up accordingly—we learned that that takes a long time, it's a very had process and it doesn't work very well. So in this site, [GE executives] agreed to put a startup plan in place that included a fairly aggressive staffing plan and also funding for planting some seeds, and placing some bets in some technical areas that were important to the region. "

Some of those bets have been challenging. For example, during the planning stages, GE was expecting Brazil's big focus on biofuels to drive a lot of its business and thereby its research. But large offshore oil finds redirected the country's energy focus, and GE had to adjust its plans accordingly. "We were able to re-deploy a lot of the talent that was brought in on chemical engineering or combustion-type processes," Herd told Ars. "Some of those competencies, we were able to shift into areas that are active." Since then, of course, oil prices have plunged, slowing activity in the sector.

While it's too soon to tell how things in Brazil will develop, Herd said his goal is to make something that's sustainable. It's got startup funds now, but the facility will eventually have to support itself, even after more than doubling in size. It may not reach that point while Herd is in charge, but he expects it will be headed in that direction when he steps aside.

Back in the states, HHMI's Rubin thinks that—even a decade in—more time will be needed to know how the Janelia Research Campus turns out. "For some of these things, I would say it's too early to tell," he told Ars, "When you're trying to do high-impact, long-range research, maybe eight or nine years isn't enough."

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Research laboratories, or “ labs ” for the intimates, are spaces indicated to execute experimental tasks which may aim for new discoveries and advances in science. They are also used to perform quality control and optimization of processes prior to industrial implementation.

There are many laboratory types and areas. Depending on both the objective and needs of the research, each lab is supplied according to the sort of research to be performed, including equipment and environment control, such as light, temperature and pressure.

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As the name says: research. And that means lots and lots of experimentation about diseases, cancers, and other factors that impact human or animal health.

Even before the term “science” was used by mankind, the need for experimentation already existed. Around the 5th century, the famous Greek philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras de Samos, supposedly managed the oldest known laboratory in history. In it, Pythagoras headed studies about different instruments and objects’ sonority, drawing conclusions known today as frequencies.

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Types of Research Labs

We can divide them according to their objectives and characteristics . It’s important to emphasize that even labs that share the same field of knowledge or specialization may have subtle but necessary differences between them. Take a look at these types of research labs:

1. Quality Control Labs

Quality Control labs are mostly used to run tests in which both components and objects of study are crucial to the analysis. This type of laboratory is often associated with chemical practices, physics or biological sciences, such as microbiology.

2. Biosafety Labs

In biological research, scientists often deal with pathogens that could represent a serious risk to public health outside of the laboratory environment, like viruses and bacteria. These labs are classified into 4 levels of biosecurity where level 1 represents the lowest and is designated for organisms of little danger, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In contrast, level 4 is where scientists study the effect of biological agents that are very harmful to individual life and with high spreading skills, like the Ebola virus.

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Clinical laboratories are those dedicated to the analysis of various biological samples, such as blood and urine. Also known as medical laboratories, they are essential to assist in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of certain diseases. In such places, science is applied to improve the quality of treatment for patients, not necessarily to develop scientific knowledge.

4. Production Labs

Production Laboratories are fundamental to assure the perfect transition from research to industrial production, whereas some processes may not work well when transitioning from small to large scale, and vice versa.

Normally, the main objective of this kind of lab is the study and design of a process that works well in different technologies. Production labs are very common in industries such as biotechnology, technology and pharmaceuticals, for example.

5. Research and university Labs

Research and university laboratories focus on either science or humanities. The role of the professionals in such labs is to work alongside post-doctorates and principal investigators. It’s not unusual to see university laboratories turning research and teaching labs into places where students can practice and test their knowledge.

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Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

Tips on Finding, Joining and Thriving in a Research Lab!

With the COVID-19 pandemic, my ability to participate in lab work, which I had imagined would be a key part of my university experience, was quite limited. While my remote research experiences taught me many interesting skills, such as using computational tools like Gaussian and PyMol , I was eager to start lab work in-person once restrictions allowed for undergraduate research. With my previous remote internship during the Leach Summer Scholars Program , I continued working with the Knowles lab with my summer mentor on a new project. I wanted to share the lessons I’ve been learning after my first few months in the lab which I hope will be helpful and relevant for you!

Look at the lab’s community

While being interested in your lab’s research is definitely a priority, one aspect about joining a lab that I feel might often get overlooked is the type of community created in the lab and the mentorship style you are looking for. While all of Princeton’s labs have incredibly interesting projects, groups can vary greatly in the kind of mentorship styles available for undergraduate students and work environments. For example, are you a type of learner who would benefit from having your principal investigator (PI) check in with you regularly, or do you prefer self-directing most of your work? Will you thrive in a bigger lab with more people and projects available, or do you like having a smaller, more tight-knit group? 

These are only a few of the questions I asked myself before joining the group, and many of the answers on how a lab is run can be answered by reaching out to other undergraduates that have already joined the lab (especially seniors who have likely spent a lot of time in lab already!) as well as graduate students (including your preceptors and TAs!). Another great way to experience whether you would fit in well with the group is letting the professor know that you would be interested in potentially joining their lab if space is available and asking to sit in on a few group meetings, where lab members will come together to discuss progress on their projects or have literature review meetings! If you have questions about how you should approach professors, have a read of Bridget’s post on Getting Involved with Lab-Based Research at Princeton .

Set a schedule 

Once you join a lab and are paired with a mentor, discuss your planned schedule of when and for how long you plan on coming into the lab with your mentor. Some professors and mentors may have expectations for how often they want you to come in to work with them on projects, so clearly communicating with them on this right from the start will help you to find times that work for both of you. Coming in on a regular basis at set times will help you make steady progress on your lab work and will also allow your mentor to expect your arrival so that they can also plan for when they will do their own work and be able to set aside time to teach and supervise you. While spending lots of time in the lab can certainly be a meaningful and rewarding experience, make sure to also keep time carved out for yourself and other extracurricular activities that you enjoy being a part of!

Keep a lab notebook

Lab notebooks can come in many different shapes, sizes and formats (our lab uses electronic notebooks!) and keeping notes on your project in one central place will help you keep track of your progress and will also facilitate your job later on when you’re trying to write a paper such as your JP or senior thesis, likely weeks or months after you’ve conducted the experiment! In addition to writing down the reactions that I am performing in the fume hood in my electronic notebook, I also keep a paper notebook with me where I write down procedures or techniques that my mentor teaches me so that I am able to perform them independently later on. Your notebook is also a wonderful place for you to write down questions to ask your mentor as well as new potential directions for a project that you might discover as you’re conducting your work.

Get to know your lab mates

One of the best parts about being in the lab in-person is the ability to have (spontaneous) social interactions with the other members of your lab, including other undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs! Getting to know the people who work near you will certainly make the research experience especially enjoyable and gives you a group of people to whom you can ask questions and who might give you new ideas or methods to try when a part of your project doesn’t seem to be working out, since research is certainly a collaborative effort! Graduate students and postdocs in your lab are also wonderful resources if you are thinking about applying to graduate school, careers in academia, or other opportunities post-graduation.

Ask questions – but to yourself first!

If you’re joining a lab for the first time, definitely do not be afraid to ask your mentor questions about different procedures to make sure you feel comfortable conducting your project. At the same time, I think that one of the ways that I have learned the most out of my experience is to use my critical thinking skills and to ask myself whether I might know the answers to my own questions first and then confirming them with my mentor. This has helped me develop many problem-solving techniques that I’ve been able to apply to my research and classwork. My mentor is also incredible in that he phrases most of the things he’ll say to me as questions, for example by asking me why I use certain chemicals in a reaction, or why I should mix them in a specific order. While thinking through these questions can sometimes be tough, it helps you avoid blindly following a pre-written procedure and makes you think about why you are doing what you are doing, which is an important step in being able to create your own procedures later on. This also helps you gain a better understanding of the science that is going on behind your work so that you are able to truly appreciate each step of the process you are carrying out. Joining a lab is a wonderful way to apply lessons from lecture to practice in a hands-on way, and being thoughtful about your work is a big first step in maximizing your learning!

I hope that these guidelines were helpful for those of you who are starting, or thinking about starting lab work in-person. Princeton is a special place in that we all have the opportunity to be involved in the leading edge of research, so make sure to take advantage of the experiences that may come your way!

—  Cecilia H. Kim, Natural Sciences Correspondent

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Brookhaven National Laboratory delivers discovery science and transformative technology to power and secure the nation’s future. Primarily supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, Brookhaven Lab is a multidisciplinary laboratory with seven Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, 37 R&D 100 Awards, and more than 70 years of pioneering research.

The Laboratory's 2,500-plus staff members lead and support diverse research teams that address the DOE mission to ensure the nation's security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. Among Brookhaven Lab’s current initiatives are nuclear science, energy science, data science, particle physics, accelerator science and technology, quantitative plant science, and quantum information science.

Brookhaven Lab staff are entrusted by DOE on the nation's behalf to safely build and operate facilities that house unique tools used by interdisciplinary teams comprising researchers from Brookhaven as well as those from other national labs, academia, and industry. In fiscal year 2018, the Laboratory attracted 5,374 facility users and guest researchers from all 50 states and countries around the world. The Laboratory offers robust STEM education and workforce development programs that draw more than 30,000 participants annually.

Management & Leadership

Brookhaven Lab is one of 10 national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Brookhaven Lab is managed for the Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a partnership between Stony Brook University and Battelle, and six core universities: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, and Yale. Meet the Lab leadership team .

Partner with Us

We work with federal agencies and non-federal customers through strategic partnership projects. We also collaborate with researchers, academic institutions, industry, students, teachers, and our neighbors.

Brookhaven and the Community

Economic Contributions

Brookhaven Lab is the only multidisciplinary national laboratory in the northeastern United States. We are one of New York State’s largest centers of scientific research, and we place special emphasis on growing the technology-based elements of the Long Island economy. Economic competitiveness depends on its capacity for innovation. Brookhaven is a unique and valuable resource—as a major science-based enterprise and as a source of discoveries that drive entrepreneurs and innovators. Read more about our economic impact .

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We work to protect the environment, conserve resources, and prevent pollution in all facets of our research and operations. We are committed to managing our programs in a manner that protects the local ecosystem and public health. Read more about our sustainability efforts .

Brookhaven Lab opens its doors to the community for open-house tours of our cutting-edge scientific facilities during Summer Sundays. We host public lectures, educational science competitions, and more. Find out more about visiting us .

Education Programs

Instilling a passion for discovery and developing the nation's future generations of scientists and engineers, Brookhaven Lab offers extensive research and education opportunities for students from grades 1 to 12 and college. We offer professional development programs for teachers and professors, too. Each year, we host more than 30,000 diverse students and educators from across Long Island and the country. Find out more about our  education programs .

History and Awards

At the site of the U.S. Army’s former Camp Upton, Brookhaven Lab opened in 1947 with a post-World War II desire to explore peaceful applications for atomic energy. Visionary scientists began their work at groundbreaking science facilities, including the world's first nuclear reactor for peacetime research and new particle accelerators. Scientists at Brookhaven have discovered subatomic particles, new forms of matter, and pioneered technology that fuels leading experimental programs around the world.

Our research has also led to life-saving medical imaging techniques that have revolutionized diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Brookhaven Lab is home to seven Nobel Prizes , as well as scientists recognized with National Medals of Science, Enrico Fermi Awards, Wolf Foundation Prizes, 36 R&D 100 awards (the "Oscars of Innovation"), and many other recognitions.

BNL's Raymond Davis Jr. receives the Nobel prize.

Brookhaven National Laboratory

PO Box 5000 Upton, NY 11973-5000 (631) 344-8000

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Brookhaven Science Associates

Brookhaven Science Associates manages and operates Brookhaven National Laboratory on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. BSA is a partnership between Battelle and The Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University. | More

URMC & UR Research Labs

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The University of Rochester Medical Center  and University of Rochester  are home to more than 3,000 researchers and 500+ labs dedicated to scientific research. Our researchers study common and rare illnesses - from cancer and heart disease and Parkinson’s to pandemic Influenza and COVID-19. These efforts have led to therapies that have saved countless lives and improved human health locally, in the region, and across the globe.

Our research makes the world a better place.

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An outgrowth of immense investment in scientific research initiated by the U.S. Government during World War II, the National Laboratories have served as the leading institutions for scientific innovation in the United States for more than seventy years.

The Energy Department's 17 National Labs tackle the critical scientific challenges of our time -- from combating climate change to discovering the origins of our universe -- and possess unique instruments and facilities, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. They address large scale, complex research and development challenges with a multidisciplinary approach that places an emphasis on translating basic science to innovation.

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National nuclear security administration laboratories, other energy department office laboratories.

Learn about 75 National Laboratory breakthroughs that have changed and improved the lives of millions of Americans. 

Listen to our Direct Current podcast episode highlighting unique stories from each National Lab! 

Learn about the high performance computing resources at the National Labs, which feature some of the fastest supercomputers in the world. 

Read the latest 2020 report here. 

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The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability has selected eight interconnected Solution Areas to focus its research efforts over the next decade. This new research plan amplifies the school’s ability to translate Stanford research into large-scale solutions and inform key decision makers in policy and business.

Selected based on extensive faculty input and assessment of where Stanford can make the most meaningful impact, the eight areas are: climate; water; energy; food; risk, resilience, and adaptation; nature; cities; and platforms and tools for monitoring and decision making.

“Solution Areas identify and leverage the critical junctions between the most pressing global sustainability challenges and the areas where Stanford has the talent and expertise to find solutions,” said Dean Arun Majumdar. “This collaborative all-campus approach expands and strengthens our commitment to using all the power we have – the knowledge, the education, the talent, the innovation, the resources, the influence – to build a thriving planet for future generations.”

‘Integrative Projects’ and ‘Flagship Destinations’

In each Solution Area, the school plans to build two types of research initiatives. One type, called Integrative Projects, will be managed by the school’s institutes, including the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment , the Precourt Institute for Energy , and a planned Sustainable Societies Institute.

Integrative Projects will be organized around decade-long research themes and dedicated to creating solutions through interdisciplinary collaboration, engagement with partners beyond Stanford, identifying significant knowledge gaps, and understanding systems.

According to Chris Field , the Perry L. McCarty Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and a professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the School of Humanities and Sciences , the new commitment to these areas “will provide both resources and coordination that expand Stanford faculty’s capacity to deliver sustainability solutions at scale.”

A second type of research initiative, called Flagship Destinations, is managed by Stanford’s Sustainability Accelerator . Flagship Destinations are targets for the pace and scale of work to address challenges facing Earth, climate, and society. For example, the school’s first Flagship Destination, announced in 2023 , calls for enabling the removal of billions of tons of planet-warming gases annually from Earth’s atmosphere by the middle of this century. By working backward from sustainability targets in consultation with faculty and external experts, this initiative seeks to rapidly translate Stanford research into policy and technology solutions. Additional Flagship Destinations will be announced later this week.

Whereas Integrative Projects are designed to produce knowledge and evidence that can eventually lead to solutions, Flagship Destination projects are intended to help verify and demonstrate that well-studied solutions can succeed at large scale so they can be launched out of Stanford and implemented for the benefit of humanity and our planet. Scalable solutions nurtured and launched through these projects could take the form of policy frameworks, open-source platforms, nonprofit organizations, new for-profit companies, and ongoing collaborations all committed to addressing pressing sustainability challenges.

“By working together in these Solution Areas across disciplines and with collaborators beyond the university, we maximize our ability to have positive impacts on the timeframe and scale needed for the planet and humanity,” said Scott Fendorf , senior associate dean for integrative initiatives and the Terry Huffington Professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

Workshops will be held with faculty and external experts to develop research strategies for each Solution Area on a rolling basis. Strategy workshops, opportunities to provide input on future Integrative Projects, and requests for proposals (open to all Stanford faculty) will be announced in the coming months.

Related message from leadership: Read a letter to faculty about the new Solution Areas from Dean Majumdar with Precourt Institute for Energy director William Chueh; Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment director Chris Field; Accelerator faculty director Yi Cui and executive director Charlotte Pera; and Integrative Initiatives associate dean Jenna Davis and senior associate dean Scott Fendorf.

Research Lab Technician Senior - Baucom Lab

How to apply.

Candidates can apply by uploading a short cover letter as the first page of the CV with contact information for 3 references. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until a suitable candidate is found. 

Job Summary

A full-time technician position is available in the Baucom lab in the EEB Dept at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. General research in the laboratory addresses plant adaptation to environmental stresses. Duties will include working at the University's main campus, in the nearby greenhouses, at nearby field sites, and will include travel for field experiments.

Mission Statement

The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.

Why Work at Michigan?

In addition to a career filled with purpose and opportunity, the University of Michigan offers a comprehensive benefits package to help you stay well, protect yourself and your family and plan for a secure future. Benefits include:

• Generous time off, including vacation time, sick time, holiday and season days
• A retirement plan that provides two-for-one matching contributions with immediate vesting
• Many choices for comprehensive health insurance
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability coverage
• Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent care expenses

In addition, LSA offers:

• Strong commitment to work/life balance
• Flexible work arrangements with respect to campus stakeholder needs
• Enhanced tuition support programs for LSA courses

Being part of something greater, of serving a larger mission of discovery and care, that's the heart of what drives people to work at Michigan. In some way, great or small, every person here helps to advance this world-class institution. It's adding a purpose to your profession. Work at Michigan and become a victor for the greater good.

Responsibilities*

Carry out large growth chamber, greenhouse and field studies (40%) - develop and implement greenhouse experiments to monitor plant adaptation to environmental stress. Monitor and maintain the health and welfare of the lab's Ipomoea lines within the greenhouse. Includes general upkeep of plants in the greenhouse and maintenance of crossing records. Adhere to all University of Michigan policies and procedures for laboratory/greenhouse research.

General lab maintenance (10%) - Clean and maintain equipment. Act as the primary resource for lab safety management. Oversee undergraduate in basic lab maintenance tasks and lab safety. Responsible for ordering research and laboratory supplies.

Field experiments (40%) - Perform field experiments, most likely at Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor, MI. Maintain databases of lab Ipomoea seed collections, chemicals, and supplies ordered. Potential trips to collect weed seeds from the field in the fall.

Mentor 1-2 undergraduate students (10%)

Required Qualifications*

Bachelors degree in a recognized field of science with 1-2 years of related experience is required. Must possess strong organizational skills and previous experience performing research in a wet lab is required. Must work well independently as well as in a group.  Demonstrated experience / willingness to supervise a team is also required. 

Must have either a) experience with basic molecular and microbial techniques, such as DNA extractions, PCR, culturing (sterile technique) and/or b) experience with maintaining plants in the greenhouse or experiments in field settings.  Candidate should be proficient at data input, manipulation, description, and visualization; preference for candidates with experience performing all data related tasks in R. Must have personal transportation and possess a valid driver's license. 

Desired Qualifications*

Master's degree in biology, ecology, microbiology, or environmental science Experience with basic molecular techniques such as DNA isolation and PCR is desired.

Modes of Work

Positions that are eligible for hybrid or mobile/remote work mode are at the discretion of the hiring department.  Work agreements are reviewed annually at a minimum and are subject to change at any time, and for any reason, throughout the course of employment. Learn more about the work modes here .

Additional Information

Please note that this is a 12-month term limited position with possibility of renewal.

As one of the world's great liberal arts colleges, LSA pushes the boundaries of what is understood about the human experience and the natural world, and we foster the next generation of rigorous and empathetic thinkers, creators, and contributors to the state of Michigan, the nation, and the world.

To learn more about diversity, equity, and inclusion in LSA, please visit lsa.umich.edu/lsa/dei .

To learn more about LSA's Mission, Vision and Values, please visit lsa.umich.edu/strategicvision .

Background Screening

The University of Michigan conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background checks.  Background checks are performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days.  The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Sakana AI’s ‘AI Scientist’ conducts research autonomously, challenging scientific norms

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Sakana AI , in collaboration with scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of British Columbia, has developed an artificial intelligence system that can conduct end-to-end scientific research autonomously. This breakthrough, named “ The AI Scientist ,” promises to completely transform the process of scientific discovery.

The AI Scientist automates the entire research lifecycle, from generating novel ideas to writing full scientific manuscripts. “We propose and run a fully AI-driven system for automated scientific discovery, applied to machine learning research,” the team reports in their newly released paper .

Introducing The AI Scientist: The world’s first AI system for automating scientific research and open-ended discovery! https://t.co/8wVqIXVpZJ From ideation, writing code, running experiments and summarizing results, to writing entire papers and conducting peer-review, The AI… pic.twitter.com/SJuat9a2Uw — Sakana AI (@SakanaAILabs) August 13, 2024

This innovative system uses large language models (LLMs) to mimic the scientific process. It can generate research ideas, design and execute experiments, analyze results, and even perform peer review of its own papers. The researchers claim that The AI Scientist can produce a complete research paper for approximately $15 in computing costs.

The dawn of AI-driven discovery: A new era in scientific research

In their study, published on the preprint server arXiv , the researchers detail how The AI Scientist was tested on tasks in machine learning research, including developing new techniques for diffusion models, transformer-based language models, and analyzing learning dynamics. According to the team, the system produced papers that “exceed the acceptance threshold at a top machine learning conference as judged by our automated reviewer.”

This development represents a significant leap in AI capabilities, moving beyond narrow task-specific applications to a more general scientific problem-solving approach. The AI Scientist’s ability to navigate the entire research process autonomously suggests a level of reasoning and creativity previously thought to be the exclusive domain of human researchers.

The implications of such a system are profound and multifaceted. On one hand, it could dramatically accelerate the pace of scientific discovery by allowing continuous, round-the-clock research without human limitations. This could lead to rapid advancements in fields like drug discovery, materials science, and climate change mitigation.

? Stoked to share The AI-Scientist ?‍? – our end-to-end approach for conducting research with LLMs including ideation, coding, experiment execution, paper write-up & reviewing. Blog ?: https://t.co/kBwAgvXDjZ Paper ?: https://t.co/XvkwWfQhyi Code ?: https://t.co/hXlXjxFAD9 … https://t.co/bPB37b9RUY pic.twitter.com/mHn6ShzaiA — Robert Lange (@RobertTLange) August 13, 2024

Balancing act: Human intuition vs. AI efficiency in the lab

However, the automation of scientific research raises critical questions about the future role of human scientists. While AI may excel at processing vast amounts of data and identifying patterns, human intuition, creativity, and ethical judgment remain crucial in steering scientific inquiry towards meaningful and beneficial outcomes. The challenge will be in finding the right balance between AI-driven efficiency and human-guided purpose in scientific research.

Moreover, the system’s ability to conduct research at such a low cost could have significant economic implications for academic institutions and the broader scientific community. This could potentially lead to a restructuring of how research is funded and conducted, with implications for employment in the scientific sector.

The researchers themselves acknowledge the potential risks associated with such powerful AI systems. They explain in their paper, saying, “The AI Scientist current capabilities, which will only improve, reinforces that the machine learning community needs to immediately prioritize learning how to align such systems to explore in a manner that is safe and consistent with our values.”

Ethical considerations: Navigating the uncharted waters of AI-led science

This admission form the researchers underscores the importance of developing robust ethical frameworks and safeguards alongside technological advancements. As AI systems become more capable of independent scientific inquiry, ensuring they operate in ways that benefit humanity and align with our values becomes increasingly critical.

The open-sourcing of The AI Scientist’s code allows for broader scrutiny and development by the scientific community, which could help address some of these concerns. It also enables researchers to build upon this technology, potentially leading to even more advanced AI-driven scientific discovery systems in the future.

As the scientific community grapples with the implications of this technology, it’s clear that the process of scientific discovery is on the cusp of a profound transformation.

The challenge now lies in harnessing the power of AI-driven research while preserving the irreplaceable elements of human scientific inquiry — creativity, intuition, and ethical consideration — that have driven progress for centuries.

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