Southeastern Universities Research Association

The Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. (SURA) is a non-profit association with member universities from the United States and Canada. SURA is focused on advancing science, research, and educational discovery.

SURA, in partnership with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, co-owns SURATech, LLC, the Management and Operating (M&O) contractor for Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. In addition to managing Jefferson Lab, SURA supports research and workforce development across space sciences, computational and data sciences, and nuclear physics.

SURA was founded in May 1980 at a meeting at The College of William & Mary, in which a group of research physicists from various universities recognized the opportunity to create a consortium to promote the expansion of nuclear physics in southeastern United States. Harry Holmgren of the University of Maryland, was the first elected president of SURA, with Jim McCarthy from the University of Virginia as the Vice President. SURA was initially formed in response to the science community’s desire to build an electron accelerator to explore the role of quarks in nuclear structure. Originally named CEBAF, the laboratory is now known as the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab).