Earlier this year, a new director took over the leadership of the National High Magnetic Field Lab in Tallahassee. That prompted a conversation with Kathleen Amm to find out her plans for the home of the world's most powerful magnets.
Amm came to the job from the directorship of the Magnet Division at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. But this was by no means her first trip to Tallahassee.
"I came down here first as a graduate student. I was at the University of Illinois and the advisor I was working for, Professor Justin Schwartz, he had an opportunity to come down here and be in the College of Engineering and at the Mag Lab. And so I came down. I remember it was a homecoming weekend for FSU because I can remember all the fans with their regalia on at the hotel when we arrived on a Sunday."
Amm would go on to get her doctorate at Florida State. And by some cosmic coincidence, her advisor for that effort was Jack Crow, the Mag Lab's founding director. Now, Amm, who officially got that job in May, has settled into the office occupied by Greg Boebinger over the past 20 years. Actually, on the day we spoke, she was awaiting a furniture delivery as she had different plans for that space.
"Then we'll be able to use this as an extra conference room, which is always a good thing to have another conference room for people."
But Amm's main concern isn't adjusting the interior layout of the sprawling lab complex at Innovation Park. Her primary job is insuring a steady flow of financial support from the National Science Foundation. The facility is now running on a five-year NSF grant of just under $196 million And with the Mag Lab's experimental portfolio steadily growing, Amm expects that support to keep on coming.
"You know, it's grown beyond its original material science focus and footprint and those areas into biology and chemistry; magnetic fields studying materials that are coming from oil spills and fires and all kinds of things. The breadth of funding agencies that are excited about the work going on at the Magnet Lab here and that we can partner with has grown. And NSF is excited about that.
At the same time, the lab's association with Florida State University means good things for the entire region.
"FSU has grown enormously as a powerful research institute. It's incredible the impact FSU is going to have on the North Florida community I think...already HAS had! We're on the cusp of something really huge I think in North Florida that's really going to help the community and the businesses here. Bringing more businesses into North Florida, because it's a wonderful place to live."
Finally, Amm says the Lab will proudly continue its long tradition of holding its wildly popular open house every February. And she expects the Mag Lab to connect even stronger to its hometown, especially as the community embarks on its third century.
"We've heard Tallahassee called the 'magnet capital of the world.' Tallahassee is very excited to take on that title and we're doing some things there with the City of Tallahassee and their celebration, but we're thinking about how we partner together on these types of things. The university and Tallahassee have a very strong partnership and that will continue. The Mag Lab loves the people of Tallahassee!"
That sentiment is obviously reciprocated, as the thousands who show up for the annual open house events will readily attest.
