Science Alliance Annual Report
2008–2009
UT-ORNL Joint Institutes
Joint UT-ORNL institutes link distinct, complementary resources in select, high-priority scientific and engineering fields at UTK and ORNL. The institutes open the doors to leadership-class research instrumentation and computing facilities for university faculty world-wide. Equally important, joint institutes bring laboratory scientists within reach of rewarding teaching and mentoring experiences, less available at a national laboratory.
The Science Alliance support for UT-ORNL joint institutes began with the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research (JIHIR). Organized in 1982, JIHIR opened joint facilities on the ORNL campus in 1984. In 2000, UT-Battelle used the JIHIR model to organize additional joint institutes in computational, biological, advanced materials, and neutron sciences. During FY09, the Science Alliance provided leadership and administrative support to the joint institutes for Advanced Materials (JIAM) and Neutron Sciences (JINS). As in previous years the center handled JIAM administrative services, including accounting and clerical assistance, and contributed leadership and funds through the Distinguished Scientist appointments of interim director Ward Plummer, Elbio Dagotto, Takeshi Egami, David Joy, and Jimmy Mays. JINS received similar leadership and funds through Director Takeshi Egami’s Distinguished Scientist appointment. The Science Alliance also contributed partial funding to JIAM, JIHIR, and the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences (JICS).
Detailed information about each program, including a 2010 budget proposal can be found on the university’s Organized Research Unit Proposals web page (http://research.utk.edu/orus/).
Joint Institute for Advanced Materials
The Joint Institute for Advanced Materials fosters interdisciplinary research and educational opportunities related to developing new materials with superior properties (such as the greater toughness and high-temperature strength required for airplane skins) or those that can be tailored to support new technologies (such as pocket-sized supercomputers or medical implants that alter their shape in response to temperature).
Joint Institute for Biological Sciences
The Joint Institute for Biological Sciences focuses on biology, energy, and health.
Joint Institute for Computational Sciences
Research to design new materials, investigate protein development in living organisms, or simulate a core-collapse supernova requires heavy-duty computing power—the kind of power available in UT’s $65 million supercomputer in the National Institute for Computational Sciences, headquartered at the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences. JICS develops methods for getting the most out of these high-performance computing systems.
Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research
Stable atomic nuclei maintain specific neutron-to-proton ratios; if they do not, the nuclei experience some level of instability. JIHIR supports work in this fascinating area of physics. Their programs supply critical research assistance and manage dormitory facilities for scientists visiting the ORNL Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility.
Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences
Scientists use various imaging techniques to magnify what is happening to individual atoms and molecules. For the lighter atoms, like the hydrogen found in abundance in biological materials, neutrons hold the key. But to make use of them, you need an accelerator or a reactor capable of hurling huge quantities of them into a material so hard that some will scatter off atomic nuclei; and following that, you need expensive instruments to interpret the data. JINS helps scientists get the most out of the neutron scattering facilities at ORNL.