NUCLEAR PHYSICS : A BENEFICIARY TO SOCIETY

Abstract

Society supports fundamental research in the expectation of benefits that support national priorities. These benefits take many forms. Satisfying natural human curiosity about the workings of nature is one, and this is the principal motivation for most researchers. Their search for new knowledge often stimulates advances in the limits of technology. It leads to instrumentation and theoretical concepts that address problems of societal concern, and to advances in other areas of science. The concepts and techniques of nuclear physics have had exceptional impact in this regard.
An equally important aspect is the contribution, nuclear physics makes to the education of the technically sophisticated workforce that is essential for the nation's present and future economic well-being. Graduate education in nuclear physics provides broad training, involving experimental and conceptual techniques from a broad range of science and technology. As a result, nuclear physicists contribute in many areas of our society, frequently well beyond their original training in nuclear physics. Nuclear physics laboratories also provide an infrastructure for the hands-on education of younger students, involving undergraduates in research and exposing secondary school teachers and their students to the subatomic world and to scientific research.