Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1954 [PAGE 1192]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1953]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

1189

AGREEMENT FOR COOPERATIVE NUCLEAR RESEARCH (10) The Dean of the College of Engineering, the Provost, and the Acting Comptroller recommend that the University enter into an agreement with six other midwestern universities (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, and Iowa State College) for the purpose of organizing a not-for-profit corporation. This corporation would be governed by a board of directors elected by individual members of the corporation appointed by each institution and would raise money through contracts with the Atomic Energy Commission or other agencies for the construction and operation of a cosmotron. A multi-billion volt strong-focusing accelerator, or cosmotron, is needed for research in the particles produced by cosmic rays. These elusive particles exist for such a short time that detection requires the most skillful experimental technique and high-speed electronics. To study these newest materials for nuclear research, a six-billion volt cosmotron has been built in California. T h e Brookhaven National Laboratory on the East Coast also has a three-billion volt cosmotron and is now developing a thirty-billion volt machine under the sponsorship of the Atomic Energy Commission. In Europe, a group of western nations has been furnishing money for the construction of a twenty- to thirty-billion volt machine. Jn the Midwest, it is recognized that the accelerator is too big a project for any one university, but by forming an association a large amount of talent would be available for the creation of the equipment and, above all, for the eventual use by physicists and students from all the associated universities. In the spring of IQ53 efforts were made to start a group of physicists actually working on the problems which must be solved, and physicists from the midwest universities were invited to spend three weeks at Brookhaven to learn the necessary background. Twelve physicists, including one from the University of Illinois, went there for the three weeks and then reassembled later in the summer at the University of Wisconsin for another three weeks. This working group got into the problems involved and it is continuing throughout the academic year with some participants spending part time and one or two spending nearly all their time on the accelerator. Preliminary meetings of scientists and business officers of the cooperating universities have been held, and a draft of the proposed agreement has been prepared by the Legal Counsel and the Acting Comptroller. Each university agrees to contribute $10,000 for organizational expenses, negotiation of contracts, and working capital. This will constitute their sole financial liability. I recommend that: ( a ) The Board approve University of Illinois participation in a not-for-profit corporation for nuclear research and that the Secretary and the Acting Comptroller be authorized to execute the necessary documents, when approved by the Legal Counsel, to implement this program; (b) $10,000 be appropriated from the General Reserve as the University's contribution to this project; ( c ) Professor P . G. Kruger of the Department of Physics and Acting Comptroller H. O. Farber be designated as the official representatives on the Organization Committee. O n m o t i o n of M r . J o h n s t o n , t h e s e r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s w e r e a p p r o v e d and a n a p p r o p r i a t i o n of $ 1 0 , 0 0 0 , o r so m u c h a s m a y b e n e c e s s a r y , w a s made f r o m t h e G e n e r a l R e s e r v e F u n d f o r t h i s p r o j e c t b y t h e f o l l o w i n g vote: A y e , M r . B i s s e l l , M r . G r a n g e , M r . H e r r i c k , M r . H i c k m a n , M r s . Holt, M r . J o h n s t o n , M r . L i v i n g s t o n , M r . M e g r a n , M r . N i c k e l l , M r s . Watkins; no, n o n e ; absent, M r . Stratton. RENEWAL OF LEASE OF PROPERTY AT 7 0 4 S O U T H SIXTH STREET, CHAMPAIGN (11) The Director of the Physical Plant and the Acting Comptroller recommend that the property at 704 South Sixth Street, Champaign, be leased until September : > 1956, for the continued use by the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations.