Fermilab is the United States' national particle physics and accelerator laboratory, operated as a Department of Energy facility on a 6,800-acre site in Illinois. Founded in 1967, it builds and operates particle accelerators and detectors, conducts experiments in fundamental particle physics, and leads large-scale international scientific collaborations.
The laboratory's technical work spans accelerator physics, neutrino physics, dark matter and dark energy research, particle detector design, and high-performance scientific computing. Its facilities include what it describes as the world's most powerful neutrino beam. Fermilab leads the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a major international collaboration. Its computing infrastructure supports large-scale experimental data analysis alongside its accelerator operations.
Fermilab's historical facilities - the Main Ring and the Tevatron colliders - were associated with the discoveries of the bottom quark and the top quark. The laboratory's current research program investigates the fundamental building blocks of matter, the origins of the universe, and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
The work draws on deep expertise across engineering, physics, computing, and large-scale systems integration. Staff operate at the intersection of frontier science and advanced technology, contributing to experiments that require close coordination with scientific institutions worldwide.