“We returned more than three times what taxpayers invested,” says Stuart Henderson. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Stuart Henderson was surprised by a recent study’s findings on the wide-ranging impact of the Jefferson Lab in Newport News.
“We returned more than three times what taxpayers invested,” says Henderson, who is director of the federally funded laboratory, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. “To see this come back so strong was very exciting for us and confirmed what we thought all the time — that there is a return on investment in the basic sciences; that science is good for driving the economy.”
The study, commissioned by the Southeastern Universities Research Association, found that the laboratory generated $556.9 million in national economic impact last year, providing income for 3,448 workers. “We provided 2,240 jobs in Virginia. We are a lab of 700 people so that’s phenomenal,” Henderson says.
