Hampton Roads residents will have the chance to explore the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility this month at its first open house in four years.

The Jefferson Lab, where several Old Dominion faculty members conduct research in nuclear physics, will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 26. The event is free. A Department of Energy research facility, Jefferson Lab conducts physics experiments designed to probe the smallest known subatomic particles - quarks.

For the first time since 1993, a section of the laboratory's unique electron beam accelerator and one of its three experimental halls will be open for public viewing.

The lab's equipment development and fabrication buildings also will be open, and staff will have exhibits and models to demonstrate how the accelerator uses superconducting radio-frequency waves to energize the electron beam used to probe subatomic particles. Other exhibits will demonstrate how physicists gather data from the interactions taking place between the quarks and the electron beam. Research staff will discuss recent experiments and their results. The event will feature a number of hands-on science activities geared toward youth. Lab staff will present the ever-popular liquid nitrogen demonstration and explain why cryogenics is so vital to the lab's operation.

The new Free Electron Laser User Facility will be open and include displays explaining why this laser is attracting so much interest in the world of technology transfer and commercial enterprise.

The City of Newport News' Applied Research Center also will be open and feature displays on research being conducted there by faculty at Old Dominion, Christopher Newport University and the College of William and Mary.

NASA, the Children's Museum of Virginia and the Virginia Air & Space Center also will sponsor displays and activities.

Visitors should plan on spending about two hours at the facilities and are advised to wear casual clothes and comfortable shoes due to the amount of walking involved. Children 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

Public parking for the open house will be at Patrick Henry Mall, just off Interstate 64 at Exit 255A. Those taking the tour should park in front of Dillard's and adjacent to Comfort Inn and NationsBank. Special-event Pentran buses will shuttle visitors between the mall parking lot and the lab on a regular schedule between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. The last bus bringing visitors to the lab will leave the mall at 2 p.m., and the last bus returning people to the mall will leave the lab at 3 p.m.

For more information about the open house visit the Jefferson Lab's Web page: www.jlab.org/openhouse.