Facilities

William and Mary is a state-supported, residential university. In addition to its approximately 5000 undergraduates, William and Mary has 2000 graduate and professional students in 19 advanced degree programs under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and in the Schools of Law, Business Administration, Education, and Marine Science Chartered in 1693 by the King and Queen of England, William and Mary is the second oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It acquired its present status as a public institution supported by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1906. Applied Science has facilities in several buildings on campus, with McGlothlin-Street Hall in the historic center of campus and the Applied Research Center adjacent to Jefferson Lab. Computational facilities include the Beowulf-like SciClone parallel computing system consisting of over a hundred networked workstations from Sun Microsystems.

NASA-Langley Research Center (NASA-LaRC) is located in Hampton, 32 miles by interstate highway from the William and Mary campus. NASA-LaRC, one of NASA's nine principal research centers, employs 2800 including 1300 science and engineering professionals. The LaRC Technical Library, with a collection of 3.8 million items, ranks among the best science and engineering libraries in the East. NASA-LaRC's publicly stated missions include :
 

    • Conducting both basic and applied research, particularly in aerospace-related sciences and technologies.
    • Transferring its technological expertise to users.
    • Interacting with universities, industry, and other government agencies to enhance its research programs.

 

Owing to security regulations at NASA-LaRC, foreign nationals are not likely to have access to the facilities at LaRC. The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA Youtube video here.) and the Virginia Space Grant Consortium adjacent to LaRC provide additional opportunities for Applied Science graduate students.

The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News is 17 miles from the William and Mary campus. For more information the Free Electron Laser (FEL) at Jefferson Lab, and the materials processing applications that are of particular interest to Applied Science, click here.