Argonne National Laboratory
Center for Nanoscale Materials
We're Hiring!

Current Facility Access

Argonne Welcome Center Hours

Badges, visitor gate passes, and prox cards can be picked up at the Argonne Welcome Center. The Argonne Welcome Center is located in Building 224, outside of the main gate. It will be open and issuing visitor gate passes Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Visitor gate passes during non-business hours will be issued at North Gate (main gate). The Building 224 Badging Office will issue badges and prox cards from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

New verification process for Service Desk-assisted password resets starts June 3, 2024.

Starting Monday, June 3, 2024, users who contact the Argonne Service Desk for assistance with resetting their Argonne domain account password will be asked to join a Teams or Zoom call with your camera on and to display a current government-issued photo identification document (ID). Examples of acceptable IDs include a driver’s license or government badge. This is a brief visual check, and no information will be recorded.

To reduce the need for a Service Desk-assisted password reset, consider creating a Password Enrollment Profile. This will enable you to reset your password in future through self-management.

Please contact the Argonne Service Desk (630) 252-9999 with any questions.

CNM Users Required to Provide Identification Compliant with the Real ID Act

As of Wednesday, May 3, 2023, all Argonne National Laboratory site visitors who are 18 years old or older, including users of the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), must show identification compliant with the REAL ID Act to enter all Argonne sites. Users will need to present identification at the Argonne Information Center during business hours (6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or to a Protective Force officer at the North Gate entrance after hours. Users only need to present a REAL ID or acceptable documentation one time to be verified. Argonne will log each person’s verification and keep it on record.

This updated identification policy puts Argonne in compliance with the REAL ID Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2005, which establishes minimum security standards for people accessing federal facilities. Please note that, although the Department of Homeland Security extended the deadline for REAL ID compliance for boarding an aircraft to May 7, 2025, Argonne will require updated identification for users to access all sites on May 3, 2023.

Details on compliant documents are available online. Please contact the CNM User Office if you have questions.

CNM Supports In-Person, Remote and Mail-In Experiments

Currently, the CNM user program supports:

  • Mail-in and/or remote operation/participation for many capabilities. Tools available remotely are indicated in our list of capabilities.
  • Remote user access to the supercomputing cluster, Carbon, and programs developed by CNM’s Theory and Modeling Group.
  • Mail-out programs for select samples, depositions, fabrications, and other select capabilities. Please contact your CNM Scientific Contact for more information.
  • Onsite user access: Visit registration must be booked before arriving at the CNM to conduct experiments. Time can be reserved on the CNM Visit Management System (VMS) (external VMS link and internal VMS link) and tools can be reserved via the CNM tool scheduler. Additionally, an existing or pending user work approval (UWA) on an allocated proposal is required. All core user training must be current; visit our training webpage for more information.
  • Partner user access: Partners are individuals or groups who not only carry out research at the CNM, but also enhance the capabilities or contribute to the operation of the center. Typically, they develop or enhance instrumentation in some way, bringing outside financial and/or intellectual capital into the evolution of the CNM, or contribute to the operation of equipment and facilities. These contributions must be made available to the general user community; therefore, benefit to them as well as to CNM must be evident. In recognition of their investment of either resources or intellectual capital, and in order to facilitate and encourage their involvement, partners may be allocated limited access to one or more capabilities over a period of one year, with the possibility of renewal for a second year. The probability of partner access being granted on oversubscribed instruments is lower than for underutilized tools. Partner scientific programs are subject to the same peer review process as general users.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science .

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science .