Cornell to receive $54 million from NSF for new CHESS sub-facility

ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) — a national research facility — will receive $54 million in federal funding over the next five years for a research and education sub-facility at Wilson Laboratory, the home of CHESS.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will provide the funding to CHESS, according to a Cornell University news release issued on Monday. The NSF funding will be provided by its Division of Materials Research, the Directorate of Biological Sciences, and the Directorate of Engineering.

CHESS annually attracts more than 1,200 users, who conduct X-ray analysis and collect data for research in materials, biomedical and other science fields, the university said.

The newly funded NSF portion of the facility will be known as the Center for High-Energy X-ray Sciences at CHESS (CHEXS @ CHESS). It will include four beamlines and staff to support high-energy X-ray science user operations, X-ray technology research and development, and CHEXS leadership, Cornell said. In addition to research, CHEXS will support education and training, particularly of researchers in biological sciences, engineering, and materials research.

“The renewal of NSF funding for CHESS will ensure America and Cornell University remain at the cutting edge of innovation in high-energy X-ray applications,” U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) said in the Cornell release. “CHESS is a unique training ground for the scientific workforce we need to keep the U.S. competitive, and is part of the lifeblood of our scientific community, enabling researchers to make advancements in everything from clean energy technologies to stronger, more resilient infrastructure.”

CHESS’s most recent grant renewal from the NSF came in 2014.

The NSF is the largest source of funding for CHESS. Until this spring, CHESS had been funded exclusively by this science agency since its commissioning in 1980. That changed in April, when Cornell transitioned to “a new funding model in which multiple partners will steward facilities at CHESS,” per the release.

CHESS recently completed a $15 million upgrade, which was funded by New York State. That project improved the infrastructure of the storage ring and CHESS’s X-ray beamlines.

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