The Institute for Underground Science at SURF: A Year of Intellectual Community Building

Presented by Deb Wolf, director of outreach and culture at the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory (SURF), and Stacie Granum, program manager at The Institute for Underground Research at SURF

This presentation is part of the South Dakota Mines STEAM Cafe series starting at 6 p.m. at Hay Camp Brewing Company at 601 Kansas City St. in Rapid City.

The Institute for Underground Science at SURF completes its first full year of operation in December. The Institute saw incredible success throughout 2024 in connecting and building multidisciplinary intellectual community centered around underground research. This includes hosting the GPN Quantum Research Collaboration Workshop, hosting the Center for Theoretical Underground Physics *and Related Areas (CETUP*) workshop, and playing a key role in the Higher Ed Connections Workshop, which brought together leading researchers from institutions across the state. In the coming year, The Institute will continue to forge new opportunities that will nourish the intellectual community around underground science. This includes working with SURF’s Education and Outreach (E&O) program to increase collaboration and integration with researchers and K–12 STEM programs.