Ames National Laboratory, formerly Ames Laboratory, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Ames, Iowa, and affiliated with Iowa State University. It is a top-level national laboratory for research on national security, energy, and the environment. The laboratory conducts research into areas of national concern, including the synthesis and study of new materials, energy resources, high-speed computer design, and environmental cleanup and restoration. It is located on the campus of Iowa State University. In January 2013 the Department of Energy announced the establishment of the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) at Ames Laboratory, with a mission to develop solutions to the domestic shortages of rare-earth metals and other materials critical to US energy security. History 1940s In 1942, Frank Spedding of Iowa State College, an expert in the chemistry of rare-earth elements, agreed to set up and direct a chemical research and development program, since called the Ames Project, to accompany the Manhattan Project's existing physics program. Its purpose was to produce high purity uranium from uranium ores. Harley Wilhelm developed new methods for both reducing and casting uranium metal, making it possible to cast large ingots of the metal and reduce production costs by as much as twenty-fold. About one-third, or around two tons, of the uranium used in the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago was provided through these procedures, now known as the Ames Process. The Ames Project produced more than of uranium for the Manhattan Project until industry took over the process in 1945. The Ames Project received the Army-Navy 'E' Award for Excellence in Production on October 12, 1945, signifying two-and-a-half years of excellence in industrial production of metallic uranium as a vital war material. Iowa State University is unique among educational institutions to have received this award for outstanding service, an honor normally given to industry. Other key accomplishments related to the project included: Development of a process to recover uranium from scrap materials and convert it into good ingots. Development of an ion-exchange process to separate rare-earth elements from each other in gram quantities — something not possible with other methods. Development of a large-scale production process for thorium using a bomb-reduction method. Ames Laboratory was formally established in 1947 by the United States Atomic Energy Commission as a result of the Ames Project's success. 1950s During the 1950s the Lab's growing reputation for its work with