Meet T. Denny Sanford ...

Before T. Denny Sanford made his phenomenal announcement of a very generous $70 million pledge to the Sanford Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory at Homestake, the chances for South Dakota to be selected as the site for the nation's newest laboratory were just a little better than the competition.

Meet Raymond Davis ...

Research in the Homestake Mine put the mine on the scientific community's map a few years ago when Dr. Raymond Davis, of the University of Pennsylvania won the Nobel Prize for his neutrino experiments in the mine.

Davis shared the  $1 million reward with University of Tokyo physicist Masatoshi Koshiba in 2002. Both men pioneered the construction of giant underground chambers to detect neutrinos, elusive particles that stream from the sun by the billion. Davis conducted his research at Homestake, nearly a mile underground, starting in 1964, and Koshiba did his research in Japan.

Meet Dr. Kevin Lesko ...

The brilliant mind that heads up the Homestake Collaboration of about 200 scientists, Lesko has worked for on the effort to convert the Homestake Mine into a lab since 2000 when he chaired a session on underground labs at a Seattle meeting where Homestake was first considered for the lab. He is a steadfast supporter of Homestake as a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory. And when Lesko says a site is perfect for underground particle and astrophysics, other scientists stand up and take notice. His experience in working with special physics projects reaches back for decades, starting with his work at Argonne National Laboratory at Standford University in the 1970s, then the University of Washington for his Ph.D.

Meet Dr. Bill Roggenthen ...

As Dr. Kevin Lesko's right hand man in the Homestake Collaboration, co-principal investigator Dr. Bill Roggenthen of the S.D. School of Mines and Technology says he always likes to support good ideas. The good idea - in this case - is a lab at Homestake.