Overview

The Instrument Development Fellowship Program was founded in order to nurture the creative development of neutron scattering instrumentation in the United States. This initiative is viewed as a critical part of keeping the neutron scattering instruments at American institutions on the cutting edge of design and scientific functionality and, therefore, competitive worldwide.

The idea behind this Program is to provide an environment in which a small, select group of early career scientists can propose innovative concepts for neutron-related instrumentation, and then to develop some of the more viable ideas into full-fledged instruments or component concepts under the overall guidance of some of the recognized experts in the field.

Fellows in the Program will conduct their research at the Spallation Neutron Source, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Program History

The vision for this Program emerged from discussions at an international workshop on Novel Instrumentation Techniques held in February 2006. A pilot Program based directly on the ideas that evolved from that meeting began later in 2006 with the full-fledged Program launching in 2007.

The Program incorporates minor refinements based on the experiences with the pilot program as well as input from the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

Administration of the program will be managed by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.