SPEARFISH - More than 200 scientists and engineers will be in Lead from April 21-26 to attend a Sanford Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory workshop and help define the first experiments to take place in the old Homestake Mine.

During a presentation Thursday at the 10th Annual Black Hills Research Symposium at Black Hills State University, lab director Jose Alonso said research scientists are interested in establishing connections and relationships with local people.

"Sanford Lab is bringing world-class science to the state," he said. "This presents great opportunities for research infrastructure building within the state. You are the people who benefit from these research opportunities."

Homestake has been chosen by the National Science Foundation as the site to build a laboratory 7,400 feet underground, contingent upon securing Congressional funding and White House approval.

However, the state of South Dakota plans to open an interim lab sooner, at the 4850-foot level. Renovations are moving along according to plans, Alonso said. Engineers are pumping out water, which began flooding the mine since it closed in 2002.

Scientists placed a seismometer in one of the shafts and are taking readings, Alonso said. As the reopening process progresses, Alonso said he expects to see experiments in physics, astrophysics and biology performed.

"There are so many people that have gathered to reopen this mine," Alonso said. "We have been able to gather a lot of talent. There's going to be lots of opportunity over the course of time for people to get involved in this."

During the SUSEL workshop, scientists will host a series of public lectures that are free and open to the public. The talks will be at 7 p.m. three nights:

* Tuesday, April 22, at Lead-Deadwood High School, the speaker will be Tullis Onstott of Princeton, a geoscientist who studies life forms in extreme conditions.

* Thursday, April 24, at Black Hills State University, Robert Svoboda of the University of California, Davis, will speak. He is a physicist who will install one of the first experiments in the lab, to study dark matter.

* Friday, April 25, at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, people will hear from Hitoshi Murayama of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Murayama has studied neutrinos.

"This is going to be a big thing," Alonso said. "This will be the world's largest laboratory and will have the world's greatest facilities."