Tallahassee Lab to Install 23.5-Tesla NMR Magnet
The strong magnet, funded by an $18 million National Science Foundation grant, is forecast to reach researchers in 2029 after a 2028 installation.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Materials Science
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Tallahassee's National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is getting a new facility to house a 23.5-tesla nuclear magnetic resonance magnet. The project is a forecast: the magnet is set to be installed in 2028 and become available to researchers in 2029, so it is not yet operational.
Why it matters
The magnet will be one of the strongest of its kind in the United States, and its high field and radio waves let researchers examine elements on a molecular scale with greater sensitivity across the periodic table. The $18 million National Science Foundation grant underwrites the build-out of that capability.
The facility will house a 23.5-tesla nuclear magnetic resonance magnet, a field strength the source describes as among the strongest in the United States. The source gives no benchmark or comparator figure for the magnet's sensitivity.
The players
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
A Tallahassee-based federally supported user facility that operates high-field magnets for materials and life-science research.
National Science Foundation
The U.S. federal agency whose $18 million grant funds the new nuclear magnetic resonance magnet facility.
The details
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a technique that places a sample in a strong magnetic field and probes it with radio waves, revealing how atoms are arranged and how they move. Because a stronger field separates the signals from different atoms more clearly, the 23.5-tesla magnet lets researchers examine samples with higher sensitivity across the periodic table. The magnet is therefore intended for molecular-scale study across multiple scientific disciplines.
Timeline
Installation of the NMR magnet is set for 2028.
The magnet is expected to become available to researchers in 2029.
The Tech Race
The new NMR magnet extends the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's high-field work into a dedicated NMR facility in Tallahassee. The source does not name a competing magnet program or a field-level milestone it is measured against.
The magnet is not yet operational: installation is planned for 2028 and researcher access for 2029, so near-term use is not possible. The source does not say what, if anything, changes for users beyond the laboratory's researchers.
The takeaway
Watch for the 2028 installation of the 23.5-tesla magnet, the milestone that starts the facility's path to researcher use in 2029. Track whether the 2029 availability date holds as the first verifiable test of the project's timeline.
Further reading
Explore more Materials Science coverage tied to this Tallahassee lab story.
Source note: This article includes information reported by WFSU News.
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