PNNL

Stephanie Lyons, a physicist in the Physical Detection Systems and Deployment Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), has been selected as a member of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) User Organization (FRIBUO) Executive Committee. Lyons will be serving a three-year term on the FRIBUO Executive Committee.

The FRIBUO Executive Committee “is a group whose members are interested in the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams for the purpose of conducting scientific research and developing new technology.” (fribusers.org) As a member of this committee, Lyons will be advocating for the FRIB community, promoting and sharing the significance of scientific research related to rare isotopes to society, and maximizing its scientific potential in the USA.

The FRIB project is a user facility at Michigan State University (MSU) for the Department of Energy Office of Science. This user facility is “hosting what is designed to be the most powerful heavy-ion accelerator, FRIB enables scientists to make discoveries about the properties of rare isotopes.” (frib.msu.edu) This rare isotope research, and its scientific discoveries, have real-life applications for society, including medicine, homeland security, and general industry.

Lyons will be joining this committee with years of research experience in nuclear physics and radiation detection. Lyons has been involved in FRIB since it was commissioned and participated in some of the first experiments performed. She joined PNNL in 2019, after her a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at MSU. As a postdoc, Lyons led several experiments for the β-Oslo Collaboration and was the principal investigator for an expansion of the indirect cross section measurement technique for reactions on proton-rich nuclei. Lyons is also currently a U.S. delegate for the International Conference for Women in Physics.