Although President Trump's version of the federal budget cut scientific research funding, Congress's final spending plan - signed by Trump on March 23 - did not do that. In fact, Tallahassee's High Magnetic Field Lab is getting a funding bump, said Lab Director Greg Boebinger.
"The funding for our next 5 years is coming and it's $184 million for the 5 years, which is a nice 10 percent increase. So we'll be able to get more science done, get that many more visiting scientists in the building. But I knew this day was coming for quite awhile, so for me it's more of a relief."
The money comes from the National Science Foundation. Boebinger said it will help the Lab build even more powerful magnets to push the boundaries of research in dozens of scientific areas, including a whole new generation of advanced MRI machines for medical applications.
"We could start to see individual cells, or at least clusters of cells in a clinical MRI where you would go to the doctor and rather than getting the pretty good picture they get now - certinaly much better than you get from X-rays or ultrasound - but we could make that go hi-def," he predicted.
Other areas, including physics, chemistry and electronics, could also benefit from the Mag Lab's research, added Boebinger.
Copyright 2018 WFSU
