Sensitive physics experiments require radio-pure materials. That's where the Black Hills State University Underground Campus (BHUC), located on the 4850 Level of SURF, comes in.
The BHUC houses SURF's low-background counting facility—a class-1,000 cleanroom containing several ultra-sensitive low background counters used to assay materials for extremely sensitive experiments—and an adjoining workspace that can be used for a variety of disciplines. Managed by BHSU, the facility partners with groups around the globe to create unique opportunities for collaborative research in physics, chemistry, biology, and geophysics. The campus is also open to graduate and undergraduate students doing research in a variety of disciplines.
Since 2021, the low-background counting facility has been temporarily relocated from the Ross Campus to the Davis Campus due to ongoing excavation activities near the Ross Campus.
Want to learn more? Brianna Mount, associate professor of physics at BHSU and director of the BHUC, gave a virtual tour of the low-background counting facility in the Davis Campus at "Deep Talks: How low can you go?"