The Enrico Fermi Institute is a Physical Sciences unit of the University devoted to interdisciplinary research. All faculty members in the Institute hold joint appointments in one or more of the following departments: Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Chemistry, Geophysical Sciences, and Mathematics. Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars working with these faculty members also hold appointments and perform their research in the Institute.
The experimental disciplines currently being pursued include: high-energy particle physics, high-energy astrophysics, studies of particles and fields in the solar system and in space, infrared and optical astronomy, nuclear cosmo-chemistry, geochemistry, scanning electron and proton microscopy, and solar energy concentration. Theoretical studies include physics of elementary particles, quantum field theory, theoretical astrophysics and solar physics, plasma physics, cosmology, and general relativity.
The Enrico Fermi Institute provides engineering, technical and administrative support for the academic members and students. It includes a state-of-the-art electronics development group and facilities for mechanical design and construction, as well as computational equipment. Special resources include environmental test equipment, large-scale assembly facilities, computer aided design facilities, etc. This makes possible the design of complex instruments, and the in-house construction of detectors needed for experiments in the laboratory, with high-energy particle accelerators, on high-altitude balloons, and in space on satellites, deep space probes and the space shuttle. Most of the high-energy physics activity is focused on the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory ("Fermilab"), one hour's driving distance from the campus, but experiments are also planned and prepared for the LEP/LHC facility at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Offices and laboratories for faculty, students, and staff are located in three adjacent buildings: the Michelson Center for Physics, the Eckhardt Research Center and parts of the Accelerator Building.
