The front page of the Bulletin published 29 September 1972

The summer of 1972 saw the opening of the accelerator building, which was purpose built to house a three-million-volt particle accelerator. 

Situated between Pevensey 2 and the Science car park, it is today home to BBC One's prime-time TV science show Bang Goes the Theory. 

Here is an extract from the original article in the Bulletin published Friday 29 September 1972:

Accelerator building opened

The new accelerator building, which was purpose-built to house a three-million-volt Van de Graaf Accelerator, was opened during the summer vacation by Sir Alan Cottrell, F.R.S., Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government. The accelerator will be used for fundamental studies in many aspects of physics and materials science, especially those concerned with particle-solid interactions, with changing the properties of materials by ion bombardment and investigating the nature of impurities in solids and the various constituents of alloys. The total cost of the accelerator project, which is under the direction of Professor M.W. Thompson, amounts to £228,000, of which about £200,000 has been provided by the Science Research Council, and the remainder by the University Grants Committee. The building, which was designed by the University's Architect and Engineer, Mr J.A. Thomas, is landscaped into the hillside behind the Physics buildings.

 To read the full article, download a digital copy of the original issue of the Bulletin or explore the entire archive.

You can also discuss this article on www.facebook.com/sussexuni50 or on Twitter (#SussexUni50).