Crocker Nuclear Lab

The front of Crocker Lab in the summer of 2005. Crocker Nuclear Lab is named for William H. Crocker [1861-1937] and is home to a 76-inch isochronous cyclotron. It was built in 1965. A member of the well-known Crocker family of Northern California and founder of Crocker National Bank, W.H. Crocker sat on the Board of Regents for nearly thirty years and funded the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory's second cyclotron. UC Davis' particle accelerator is primarily used by the UC Davis Air Quality Group to determine, among other things, the amount of pollution in the atmosphere of our national parks. The beam is also used by visiting researchers from other schools, labs, or industries in their experiments.

Crocker Lab is one of the few labs in the nation with a Retinal Melanoma treatment facility. They boast a near 100% success rate in treating this particularly virulent form of cancerhttp://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/eye-cancer-clinic.html. The lab was also used in analysis of such historical documents as the Gutenburg Bible and the Vinland Map. (Though, considering the map turned out to be a fake, I guess it's not really a historical document) The current director of the lab is Dr. Anthony Wexler. Dr. Robert Flocchini was the prior director.

Here's a great article in The California Aggie about the lab.

I'll buy ice cream for anyone who can spot the error they made in the eighth paragraph. - JesseSingh

Save the ice cream for someone who finds an article without an error. There are no "organic elements" just organic molecules and compounds and so on - JasonAller

Wow, I should have asked you guys to proofread my article before it went in...thanks for catching that, you are careful readers. - CristinaDeptula

We got a kick out of the article here at the lab. Good job. Actually the error I mentioned wasn't the "organic elements" reference. It's that nitrogen cannot be detected using the method described in paragraph 8. But, I think, other than a couple of researchers at the lab, nobody else noticed. ;) - JesseSingh

For additional nuclear research assets see McClellan Nuclear Radiation Center.