U.S. National Science Foundation

NSF: National Science Foundation logo.

The U.S. National Science Foundation provides funding for many LLE research initiatives, including the following:

OPAL logo in gold against a blue bagkround with a transparent target burst icon.

NSF OPAL

NSF OPAL Facility Midscale Research Infrastructure (RI-1) Design Award

The NSF OPAL facility is envisioned to serve as a learning environment and a hub for diverse scientific networks, offering opportunities for fundamental research, innovation, and societal benefit. Funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation will support the design of two 25-petawatt lasers using optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification, as well as associated experimental and diagnostics systems. The design will be guided by the most pressing scientific questions that can be answered using such a laser system in four areas of frontier research.

Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures

Hosted at the University of Rochester and designated as a U.S. National Science Foundation Physics Frontiers Center, the Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures (CMAP) is a collaboration among faculty, scientists, researchers, and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, the Universities of California at Berkeley and Davis, the University at Buffalo, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. LLE provides facilities and researchers that help support this important effort.

Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures group: image of headshots for all the members with the CMAP and NSF logos.