Fermilab

US centre for particle physics at Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago. It is named after Italian-born US physicist Enrico Fermi. Fermilab was opened in 1972, and is the home of the Tevatron, which will be the world's most powerful particle accelerator until the inauguration of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The Tevatron, which began operation in 1983, is 6.4 km/4 mi in circumference and was originally called the Energy Doubler. It was constructed using 1,000 superconducting magnets and incorporated the largest cooling system ever built to keep these magnets at their low operational temperatures. This cryogenic system was designated an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

In 1998, Fermilab added a 3.2 km/2 mi Main Injector accelerator as part of a decade-long programme of upgrades in preparation for Collider Run II, the next generation of particle experiments at the Tevatron. Collider Run II began in March 2003.