UT-Oak Ridge Partnership on Cusp of “Big Science”
Big science. For months, even years, we’ve talked about the promise of “big science” and the UT-Oak Ridge partnership.
As you know, UT is managing partner, with technology giant Battelle, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This joint management venture has been a great success, and the U.S. Department of Energy recently renewed UT-Battelle’s contract with an extremely positive assessment of progress.
UT has had cooperative programs with the installations at Oak Ridge since the 1940s, but just this year many of the pieces have fallen into place to realize the potential of our partnership. Let me update you on developments that will transform the economy and intellectual climate of the Knoxville-Oak Ridge area and help improve worldwide health and security.
Spallation Neutron Source. The $1.4 billion SNS has begun producing neutrons. What could that possibly mean to you? Better health, cleaner environment, and faster computers are a few of the benefits you are likely to enjoy as a result of research at this Oak Ridge megafacility. Oak Ridge will be the world’s leading destination for researchers who’ll use neutrons to engineer materials at the atomic level—materials used to manufacture items as disparate as airplanes and designer drugs.
Joint Institute for Advanced Materials. We will soon begin construction of this new UT-Oak Ridge facility on the UT campus. With the excellent help of the Tennessee congressional delegation, the university received federal funding for what will be the fourth joint institute building. State funding also has been recommended. The other three joint institutes—neutron sciences, biological sciences, and computational sciences—are in Oak Ridge. The Joint Institute for Advanced Materials will complement the capabilities of the SNS and provide a Knoxville focus for this critical area of research.
Governor’s chairs. By the time you read this we likely will have announced the first hire in this new group of superscientists. The state of Tennessee and UT-Battelle are funding these appointments, which will bring world-class talent to the UT-Oak Ridge joint institutes. Already UT and Oak Ridge share 36 joint appointments, including our Distinguished Scientists, who are world-class researchers who split their time between the university and the lab. Scholars of this caliber attract more of the best minds and grow dynamic research groups that work on the cutting edge of new knowledge.
Computational sciences. Oak Ridge National Laboratory also is well on its way to becoming a supercomputing capital. By next year, ORNL will have the world’s most powerful unclassified supercomputer. Capitalizing on this strength, the joint UT-Oak Ridge Institute for Computational Sciences is set to become a world-class center for research, education, and training in computational science and engineering.
UT is Tennessee’s flagship research institution and one of America’s great public universities. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the nation’s largest multi-purpose science laboratory. A fortuitous combination of history, geography, and intellectual camaraderie unites our two institutions. No other place in the United States has scientific infrastructure, tools, and people equal to ours. The UT-Oak Ridge partnership will dramatically impact Tennessee economic development and the world quest for knowledge. We are on the cusp of an era of big science like none that has gone before.