Graduate Education at NSCL and MSU

First and foremost, NSCL views itself as the training ground for the nuclear scientists of tomorrow. As a national laboratory—and home to the nuclear physics graduate program ranked #2 by U.S. News & World Report—NSCL offers graduate students the opportunity to study and conduct research with some of the world’s top scientists in the premier rare-isotope accelerator facility in the U.S.

Inspection of a silicon-strip charged-particle detector. more

NSCL is home to the Coupled Cyclotron Facility and receives strong funding support from MSU as well as from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Our research is viewed as central to the nation’s advancement of nuclear science, nuclear astrophysics, accelerator physics, and related instrumentation technologies. Our position grows even stronger as we advance toward the development of a next-generation facility. Graduate students in our program benefit from close, collaboration with our faculty and staff, our ongoing research activities, and one another.

With almost 40 years behind us, we now have an alumni network that includes people in high-ranking positions all over the world. Some are faculty members and researchers; others work in national laboratories; yet others are leaders in industry and executives with major corporations. A graduate degree from NSCL prepares you for success in any career. It says that you have mastered a rigorous curriculum and have developed the discipline, analytical skills, and collaborative methods required to work productively and add value to any enterprise.