On Dec. 11, MSU was chosen as the home for FRIB, marking the end of the competition for the next-generation physics laboratory and breathing life into the Cyclotron for decades to come.

“We’ve gone through a range of emotions,” Cyclotron spokesperson Geoff Koch said. “We were stunned at first, then elation and now realizing all the work that’s ahead. We have the tiger by the tail now and now we’ve got to deliver the project and build the machine.”

FRIB is a $550-million project funded by the Department of Energy that will make MSU a worldwide leader in nuclear physics. Since July 2008, the university has campaigned for the project, competing against the federally-funded Argonne National Laboratory, located in Illinois.

With construction scheduled to start in 2013, the project is expected to bring $1 billion in economic growth for Michigan through the creation of jobs and research.

“This may be the biggest accomplishment in the history of Michigan State,” MSU Trustee Faylene Owen said. “Getting FRIB tells the entire world what an excellent university Michigan State is.”

The facility, which will expand the university’s Cyclotron, will study rare isotopes, which are unique nuclei not usually found on earth. They exist for less than a second and are involved in cosmic processes, such as exploding stars. Research done at the facility also could be useful in fields such as medicine and national defense.

The DOE’s decision was made after officials from MSU and Argonne lobbied in Washington, D.C., and department representatives made site visits to both locations.

Although Koch said professors at the Cyclotron were excited, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“You can’t buy a superconducting linear accelerator off the shelf,” he said. “You’ve got to build it from scratch and design it and make sure it works. It’s a huge undertaking and people are settling in. They’re shifting their weight to lean into the project.”

The campaign was marked by student involvement on campus — physics and nonphysics majors alike.

Monica Fineis, an advertising senior, created the FRIB student advisory committee that organized the FRIB Frenzy rally in October in an effort to stir involvement in the student body. Students spent the day rallying at the rock on Farm Lane, hurling shouts of “Bring FRIB to our crib,” across campus.

“I think the student involvement really surpassed everyone’s expectations, including my own,” Fineis said. “I started off thinking maybe we can get 250 people wearing T-shirts, but then I started talking to more people and then we ended making 2,000 T-shirts.”