Michigan State University has one of the top nuclear physics programs in the world. The future of the program got even brighter on this day in 2014 when officials broke ground for the Facility for Rare Isotopes (FRIB). Upon completion it would become the world’s most advanced superconducting heavy-ion linear accelerator, expected to draw 1,400 scientists from around the world to conduct research. Innovations in everything from MRI machines and PET scanners to smoke detectors and cell phones stem from findings in nuclear science.