{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://foster.house.gov/media/press-releases/foster-durbin-duckworth-celebrate-passage-resolution-name-fermilab-research", "Foster, Durbin, Duckworth Celebrate Passage of Resolution to Name Fermilab Research Center After Renowned Physicist Dr. Helen Edwards", "2024-12-19", "2024", "2024-12", "Democrat", "House", "IL", "Bill Foster", "F000454", "foster.house.gov", "foster", "https://foster.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, DC \u2013 Today, U.S. Representative Bill Foster (D-IL), U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) applauded the House and Senate passage of their bicameral resolution, included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2024, to rename Fermilab\u2019s Integrated Engineering Research Center (IERC) after the late Dr. Helen Edwards, who worked at Fermilab as a particle physicist for 40 years. The IERC is home to new office and lab space that hosts an intersection of scientific disciplines.\n\n\u201cOver its history, Fermilab's success has been built by the hard work of committed scientists. Helen Edwards was a scientific and technical leader of Fermilab from its earliest days, and she was a dear friend. Helen was also deeply committed to the accelerator research and engineering that will be carried out in the Integrated Engineering Research Center, and it is altogether fitting that it bears her name. I\u2019m thrilled that my colleagues and I were able to get this legislation across the finish line to honor her memory,\u201d said Foster.\n\n\u201cAn extraordinary scientist, Dr. Helen Edwards dedicated 40 years of her life to deepening our understanding of particle physics. Her pioneering work in the design, construction, and operation of the Tevatron earned her well-deserved national recognition and provided the foundation for the advanced particle physics research conducted by Fermilab scientists today,\u201d said Durbin. \u201cI look forward to seeing Dr. Edwards\u2019 name on Fermilab\u2019s new IERC, honoring her decades of historic work.\u201d\n\n\u201cIllinois\u2019s own Fermilab is a crown jewel of American innovation at the forefront of cutting-edge science,\u201d Duckworth said. \u201cFor years, hundreds of scientists and engineers at Fermilab have dedicated their expertise to scientific discovery and answering some of the world\u2019s most complicated questions, including the late and brilliant Dr. Helen Edwards. I\u2019m proud that our resolution to rename the Integrated Engineering Research Center after Dr. Edwards is heading to President Biden\u2019s desk to be signed into law\u2014it\u2019s well-deserved, and it tells generations of girls interested in science that they belong at the table.\u201d\n\n\u201cHelen Edwards was an extraordinary scientific leader and the architect and builder of Fermilab\u2019s Tevatron. Her visionary leadership and foresight shaped Fermilab\u2019s directions for many decades and will continue to far into the future. She has been an inspiration to me since my early days as a graduate student at Fermilab, for her strong and passionate leadership and dedication to our lab,\u201d said Lia Merminga, Director of Fermilab. \u201cI am thrilled to have one of the landmarks on our site named after her. The Helen Edwards Engineering Center will join the ranks of other named places on site that celebrate visionary science and leadership: Wilson Hall, Ramsey Auditorium, Feynman Computing Center, Lederman Science Center and the Tollestrup Auditorium, all located at the national laboratory that is named after Enrico Fermi.\n\nThe resolution was also cosponsored by U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL).\n\nDr. Edwards was a particle physicist best known for overseeing the design, construction, commissioning, and operation of the Tevatron, a machine which for 25 years served as the most powerful particle collider in the world. The Tevatron was used to find two of three fundamental particles discovered at Fermilab \u2013 the top quark in 1995 and the tau neutrino in 2000.\n\nDr. Edwards\u2019 work on the Tevatron earned her a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1988 and the National Medal of Technology in 1989. The Tevatron remained in use until 2011 when Fermilab moved to new accelerator projects like the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility, which relies heavily on the foundations built by Dr. Edwards. Dr. Edwards passed away in 2016.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://foster.house.gov/media/press-releases/foster-durbin-duckworth-celebrate-passage-resolution-name-fermilab-research"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9980732575058937, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}