SCHUMER ANNOUNCES CORNELL’S REVOLUTIONARY CHESS LAB RECEIVES $20 MILLION IN FEDERAL FUNDING TO BUILD NEXT GENERATION BEAMLINE ‘XLEAP’ – BOOSTING CUTTING-EDGE SCIENTIFIC R&D IN UPSTATE NEW YORK
Thanks To Schumer’s Years Of Work, CHESS Went From Once Being On The Chopping Block For Fed Funding To Growing Cutting-Edge Facility
Cornell High-Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) Is One Of Only Two High-Energy Synchrotron X-Ray Sources In U.S.; Lab Has Generated Revolutionary Scientific Research In Numerous Fields, Including Discoveries That Led To Two Nobel Prizes – Now Lab Is Growing With New Cutting-Edge XLEAP Beamline
Schumer: Fed $$$ Is Supercharging New Growth At Cornell’s CHESS Lab!
Building on his relentless advocacy to bolster Upstate New York as a global leader in innovation, scientific research, and manufacturing, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today announced a $20 million federal investment from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for Cornell University’s High-Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) Lab to build a new X-ray beamline for Life Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Agriculture and Plant Sciences (XLEAP) facility. The XLEAP facility will feature cutting-edge instrumentation that will allow scientists to do research in ways not possible today, including measuring trace amounts of rare earth elements and elements with high atomic numbers that are often obscured at lower energies.
“This $20 million federal investment will supercharge Cornell’s cutting-edge CHESS Lab and bring us to the next frontier of understanding the elemental and microscopic details of organisms. Cornell’s new XLEAP facility will be a monumental jump forward in deepening our understanding of the building blocks of life and will advance scientific discovery from fighting climate change to biology” said Senator Schumer. “When CHESS faced major cuts in federal support 10 years ago, I fought tooth and nail to ensure its pioneering research and hundreds of good-paying jobs would remain here in Upstate New York, and now this latest boost in federal investment shows that CHESS is top of its class not just in America, but the world. The addition of the new XLEAP beamline could not be in better hands at CHESS, and is just the latest in showing how Ithaca is leading the way in making Upstate NY a global leader in research and technology.”
“This funding exemplifies the collaborative strength that defines Cornell's research infrastructure,” said Krystyn Van Vliet, Vice President for Research and Innovation at Cornell University. “The XLEAP project, made possible by the high energy X-rays produced at the synchrotron accelerator complex, will have a profound impact on our understanding of the carbon cycle and sustainable agriculture, and reflects the collective dedication of our research community. We are proud to be at the forefront of cutting-edge research with projects like this enabling impactful science by Cornell’s research community and by CHESS users across the US. Additionally, we appreciate NSF’s continued investment in this scale of research capabilities and teams that enable transformational discoveries, and Senator Schumer’s strong support of NSF’s mission and of unique academic research facilities like CHESS.”
“We are deeply grateful for the National Science Foundation's substantial investment in the XLEAP beamline," said Joel Brock, Director of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, CHESS. “This funding not only propels us further into precision X-ray research but also underscores the vital role of government support in addressing critical challenges in agriculture, biology, and environmental sciences. We extend our deepest gratitude to the NSF for recognizing the impact of our work, and we appreciate Senator Schumer's dedicated advocacy and ongoing support in securing the resources needed to push the frontiers of scientific discovery.”
Schumer explained the $20 million award for the XLEAP beamline at CHESS will build a world-leading, micro-focusing x-ray that will allow scientists to study an organism’s elemental details in ways not possible today. Researchers using the new facility will be able to use X-ray fluorescence, a technique in which researchers analyze the chemical makeup of a sample by measuring the fluorescent X-rays emitted when a primary X-ray source is used. The facility will also have a unique on-site growth chamber to safely use the technology on living samples, such as a full live plant. Traditional methods often require sample preparation such as cut stem or leaf, due to the strength of the beams. The unique use of live samples will allow researchers to study the changes in organisms in novel ways. By combining state-of-the-art technology and expertise at CHESS with other world-class research facilities at Cornell, XLEAP will create a one-of-a-kind facility focused on solving some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
The Senator explained that CHESS is a high-energy synchrotron light source, which is a highly-sophisticated x-ray machine and one of only two facilities in the country with this technology. The XLEAP will combine the state-of-the-art CHESS lab with the newest x-ray technology to create a facility primed for innovation and discovery. The CHESS lab’s research has played a pivotal role in a multitude of medical discoveries and scientific breakthroughs, including directly contributing to two Nobel Prizes.
Senator Schumer is a long-time advocate for CHESS and ensuring its continued success in Ithaca. In April 2022, he secured $8.5 million in additional federal funding for the award-winning lab. Schumer’s efforts helped create 150 good-paying science and tech-based jobs at CHESS, plus over 150 new jobs in construction and to run the HMF beamline. In 2012, when it appeared that CHESS was on the chopping block from receiving NSF funding, Schumer personally called Dr. Subra Suresh, then Director of the National Science Foundation, and received assurances that CHESS would be able to submit a peer-reviewed proposal for continued support as an NSF-funded facility. This intervention directly resulted in CHESS receiving, based on scientific merit, two five-year NSF awards, one worth $100 million, and the other $49 million, in 2014 and 2019, respectively, ensuring the longevity of the facility. The senator has also long-championed federal assistance to CHESS from the Air Force to support critical research and technology development.
Today’s federal funding for CHESS comes from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Mid-scale Research Infrastructure program, which supports projects between $4 million and $20 million that enable advances in scientific and engineering fields, as well as STEM education, by creating new research capabilities and training early-career researchers in the development, design, and construction of cutting-edge infrastructure.
###
