COSM stands for:
Center for the study of the Origin and Structure of Matter

COSM is a National Science Foundation Physics Frontier Center in particle and nuclear physics. The Center is a partnership between Hampton University, Norfolk State University, and North Carolina A&T State University.

The Center's areas of activity are:

• The energy frontier in particle physics with the ATLAS experiment at the CERN LHC, where an unprecedented energy of 14 TeV (seven times higher than that at any existing laboratory) will open a new window to exciting discoveries about the nature of space, time, and matter.

• The precision frontier in intermediate-energy nuclear and particle physics, currently with the Primex and HKS experiments, using the unmatched precision of the machines at Jefferson Lab.

• Using state-of-the-art computing techniques in support of research, including grid computing

• For education and outreach, the Center's approach is that doing forefront science will attract capable minority students to a career in science. The Center allows students at HBCUs to see science being done, and encourages them to become involved. At the high-school level, the QuarkNet program achieves the same goal.

Center Director: Prof. Kenneth W. McFarlane, Physics Department, Hampton University