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Meeting at the Country Club of Lansing on what many of us hoped were the waning days of winter, the Rotary Club of Lansing meeting was called to order by President Lisa as the clock struck precisely 12:30. Being Lansing’s own “Miss Manners”, Lisa extended a warm welcome to all in attendance.
After the invocation by Al Yambor, Rotarians and guests sang a rousing rendition of God Bless America accompanied by Lansing’s best, John Dale Smith. Michelle Lantz put on her roller skates to get the microphone from one end of the room to the other to allow the introduction of our students and guests.
Manny Garcia announced March birthdays and responses to the interesting question of what piece of furniture each birthday Rotarian would associate with. Needless to say, it was interesting. Irv Nichols then gave the Remembrance Report, sharing that Jack Bates was doing better and Ken Beachler was in the hospital for tests. Sending our best wishes to both.
Lisa reminded Rotarians that the District Conference is being held in Kalamazoo on April 23rd, and our own local Rotary Hero, Ken Beachler, was being honored.
Our special music of the day was introduced by John Dale, and were we ever in for a treat. 15-year-old Haslett High School student Jennifer Barnett would have made Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald proud as she proved she was, as John Dale indicated, one of this area’s up and coming Jazz singers. Her voice is expressive and mature.
Chair of the Day, Jay Smith, then introduced our guest speaker, Brad Bull, the Conventional Facilities & Infrastructure Division Director of the FRIB project on the MSU campus. In this role, our speaker is responsible for the design, fabrication, installation and commissioning of all aspects of the FRIB. He is responsible for construction and safety as well as completing the multi-year project on time and within budget. And then he also has the task of explaining this massive project to audiences like us – which might actually be more challenging than the construction. If this isn’t enough, Brad has also been responsible for some additional ‘minor’ projects on campus including the Power Plant addition, the Spartan Stadium addition, the Snyder and Phillips Hall addition, the Biomedical Physical Sciences building, the Veterinary Medicine Nuclear Magnetic Resonance addition and the installation of a cyclotron at the MSU Clinical Center. Does this guy ever have time to go home to watch basketball?
Breaking down the presentation into manageable chunks, Brad proceeded to describe the designing and construction of the GRIB. I was fortunate to have Paula Cunningham, Julie Pingston and Rich Howard at my table to translate this into ‘editarian talk’ for me. This $730 million project is working toward a 2022 completion date. Upon completion, the FRIB will enable scientists to make new discoveries about rare isotopes (Brad suggested that this will enable them to fill in some of the blank boxes in the Periodic Table of Elements that we all remember fondly from Chemistry class). He lamented about the land-locked location, being right next to the Wharton Center, which led me to believe that this is really all about bringing in more plays that glow in the dark. As the project moves forward, this will allow MSU to decommission two aging cyclotrons that have had a good life, but as they way, ‘when it’s time, it’s time!’ This location and new design carry a number of challenges, but also a number of opportunities. (Ask Julie if you want to know the details). Of interest though, is how the project is loading some scientific equipment as each segment of the construction progresses. 
Beginning with the well-publicized ground breaking on March 17, 2014, the project will ultimately be 750’ long and 70’ deep. Some concrete areas will be up to 16’ thick. Brad shared additional information which just highlighted the unbelievable complexity of this construction. And the good news is they are on budget and ahead of schedule.
Had the FRIB not been awarded to MSU, the ramifications could have been significant. Now with the award, the design is building in cost efficiencies for future expansions, upgrades and opportunities. A partnership primarily between MSU and the Department of Energy, the FRIB will be a truly world class scientific partnership bringing in many in the scientific community from around the world. Locally, the FRIB will have significant economic impact, already bringing 1400 users to a project which does not yet exist. This is in addition to all the current construction jobs. Upon the completion of his talk, Brad took questions from the audience.
President Lisa thanked our speaker for sharing information about this project, so important to MSU and to our community, with the Lansing Rotary. There will be no meeting next week due to Good Friday and the Easter Weekend celebration. We will meet once again on Friday, April 1 (is this an April Fool’s Joke?) at the Lansing Center. As the meeting was adjourned, President Lisa gave a resounding Go Green in anticipation of the first step toward a march to glory that unfortunately, was not to be.
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