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SECTION B
Friday, September 3, 2010 Issue 13
T H E
E D I T O R I A L L Y
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://dailybeacon.utk.edu
Vol. 115
I N D E P E N D E N T
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N E W S P A P E R
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U N I V E R S I T Y
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Physics professor to lead new research center Blair Kuykendall Staff Writer The latest outworking of UT’s ongoing ambition to lead the nation in research and energy efficiency is the new Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education (CIRE). UT physics professor Lee Riedinger will direct this new center, a joint venture between UT and ORNL. Riedinger has long served the university in many roles, acting as teacher, administrator and recently, interim vice chancellor for research. He joined UT as a faculty member in 1971 and began in 2000 as ORNL’s deputy director for science and technology. “It is really an honor to be asked to take the lead on this new center and this new Ph.D. program,” Riedinger said. “I have been on the faculty for a long time and focused on a lot of teaching and research in nuclear physics. And, I have done a half-dozen prior administrative jobs at UTK or ORNL, which have enabled me to work with others to set up or improve many of the programs of partnership between the university and the national laboratory.” Riedinger’s knowledge and experience of the interworking of both UT and ORNL will be critical in ensuring that CIRE develops into a flourishing success. “Lee Riedinger has been a colleague and friend of mine for more than 25 years,” Soren Sorensen, head of the physics department, said. “Lee is an internationally highly respected nuclear physics researcher and at the same time an outstanding administrator and innovator, who has played a major role in many of the most important initiatives between UT and ORNL for the last three decades. Some people know UT as well as Lee, and some people know ORNL as well as him, but nobody knows UT and ORNL as well as him. He is uniquely qualified for this important position.” Reidinger is anxiously preparing for his new role. “The most exciting aspect of this new job is to work with a whole lot of people at the two institutions to recruit the faculty from existing researchers at ORNL and UT, establish the curriculum, and get this interdisciplinary Ph.D. program running,” he said. “People are the most important resource of any institution, and I have been very fortunate to work with many very fine people over my years at UT and ORNL. Now I get to team with them again in this brand new venture, and that is very exciting.” In addition to Riedinger, both Sorensen and Wayne Davis, dean of engineering, participated in a task force assembled by Chancellor Jimmy Cheek to head up the creation of CIRE. “The task force was tasked with three initial tasks by Chancellor Cheek and the Dr. Thom Mason (director of ORNL), based on the governor’s commitment to establish the new degree program in energy science and engineering,” Davis said. Prior to assembling the task, Sorenson said the trying economic climate had to be overcome. “Before the task force even started to work, the top management of UT and ORNL had to develop the new concept and, most importantly, find ways to finance the lofty dreams,” he said. “I have been very impressed with the vision of the UT and ORNL leadership combined with the realistic ways in which they have found ways to finance the center.” Assembling the center was a rather ambitious undertaking, augmented by the rapid schedule given to the administrators for organizing the initiative. “The (goals) were to: one, develop a proposal for the new center and submit it to the university for approval; two, develop the detailed draft of the new interdisciplinary Ph.D. in ESE and the concept of concentrations in ESE that would be in existing Ph.D. programs; and three, conduct the search for the director of the newly formed center,”
Davis said. To accomplish their aims both effectively and efficiently, faculty members across the campus were enlisted to join the effort. “The task force, as established, involved representatives from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Business and Agriculture, as well as key leaders from ORNL,” Davis said. “Dr. Jim Roberto and I co-chaired the task force. The task force did an excellent job of addressing the key components of both the center and the proposed new degree.” Because of its very nature, the development of this new degree necessitated input from a multitude of colleges within the university. “As with any new degree program, and particularly with a degree program that is interdisciplinary, there were many issues that needed to be addressed,” Davis said. “ … The biggest challenges were the time deadlines under which we were operating and the overriding goal of
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T
he most exciting aspect of this new job is to work
with a whole lot of people at the two institutions to
recruit the faculty from existing researchers at ORNL and UT. – Lee Riedinger on his new position to direct a new joint venture between UT and ORNL
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creating a Ph.D. program that crosses over a number of different colleges. Developing a course of interdisciplinary study on such an advanced level forced close collaboration between faculty members. “The task force’s primary focus was to find innovative and academically sounds ways to create a completely new type of educational program: an interdisciplinary degree developed jointly between a university and a national laboratory,” Sorenson said. “Just creating an interdisciplinary program is difficult, but to do that between a university and a leading federal research organization like Oak Ridge National Laboratory was a truly daunting task.” Members of the task force were enthusiastic about the appointment of Riedinger to direct the initiative. “Dr. Riedinger is an ideal director for CIRE,” Davis said. “ ... From my perspective, Dr. Riedinger probably understands the unique roles and differences between a university and a national laboratory better than anyone else at UT and is ideally suited for the role.” Davis believed that Riedinger is perfectly equipped to handle this new role, critical to this high-profile addition to academic life at UT. “We are very pleased that he expressed a high interest in the position and was selected by the chancellor’s office from an excellent pool of candidates from both UT and ORNL,” Davis said. “He brings significant excitement and energy (no pun intended) to this new program, which is already receiving national attention and should allow us to recruit new Ph.D. students from both UT and from across the country.” While the task force has accomplished much already, there is still work ahead for the new director and those involved with the program. “The task force has created a very exciting framework, but the new director in collaboration with the CIRE faculty still has a tremendously challenging task in front of him,” Sorensen said. “But the potential rewards are high, so I know we are all eager to work out all issues and make CIRE a success.”
This center will incorporate the research capacity of the Department of Energy’s largest science and energy lab with UT students and faculty ready to develop new ideas and innovation. The CIRE initiative is geared towards centralizing the flow of interdisciplinary research between these two educational powerhouses. CIRE’s scope will revolutionize UT graduate studies, housing a doctoral program combining energy science and engineering. Varying specialties will include distributed energy and grid management, environmental energy and climate sciences, energy conversion and storage, renewable and nuclear energy, as well as bioenergy studies. Part of the doctoral program will include the UT-ORNL Distinguished Graduate Fellowship Program, offering doctoral programs that involve concentrations combing nuclear, materials and computational science with engineering. “It will be very challenging to recruit a new cadre of top-notch graduate students interested in getting a Ph.D. in energy science and engineering,” Riedinger said. “We would have difficulty in national recruiting of this group of grad students on our own, but working with ORNL is the way we can get this done.” Riedinger said the recruitment abilities of one of the nations top laboratories will be helpful in securing applicants to the program. “The lab has developed a robust team and mechanism for recruiting Ph.D.s for their programs, and they will also focus now on grad students for this new energy Ph.D.,” he said. “We are planning to visit 30 top universities across the country this fall, the first being on Sept. 13 to Georgia Tech. We have prepared brochures to hand out and a website is soon ready for prime time. I am very optimistic that we can attract some of the country’s best and brightest.” Students will have the opportunity to work with research teams at both ORNL and UT to develop hands-on experience in these fields. Research will be focused on solving issues that will face our nation in the future, while at the same time learning skills in entrepreneurship, which will help them achieve their goals. The center will open with the ambition of bringing between 20 and 40 gifted graduate students per year to Knoxville. “We will gear up to produce a flow of new Ph.D.s in energy science and engineering, and I feel that some of these will end up working in energy-related industries in Tennessee,” Riedinger said. “We will team with industry whenever possible in energy-related technical and scientific challenges they face, and the results of these research projects should be very beneficial to their development programs and their products.” Riedinger, who has served as director of UT Science Alliance Center of Excellence, as well as head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, brings a great deal of experience to the program. Currently his research involves the limits of nuclear stability under accelerator influence. CIRE was initiated in January of 2010 by state legislation sanctioning the UT/ORNL collaborative act. “We are very pleased that the center has now been established,” Davis said. “The new director, Dr. Lee Riedinger is now on board, and the draft degree proposal is being reviewed within the Graduate Council.” The main hopes for the program include pushing the university closer to ranking in the Top 25 research institutions in the nation. According to Riedinger, UT has a plan to tackle this issue. “As time goes on, we need to increase our graduate programs to the point where we are graduating maybe 50 percent more doctoral students per year,” he said. “This is a huge challenge, but I am convinced that, by adding this interdisciplinary Ph.D. in energy and teaming with ORNL to utilize their researchers and facilities, we can help our faculty in putting a significant dent in this doctoral deficit.”
New apparel store opens in stadium Alyce Howell Staff Writer Not only did Neyland Stadium finish construction Wednesday, but the university also welcomed a new store. UT’s athletic department and bookstore joined together to create a store called the “Tennessee Official Team Shop,” which will exclusively sell official Adidas football apparel. The store is located inside Neyland Stadium at Gate 20. In the past, the stadium store was only open for game days. However, the Tennessee Official Team Shop will function like a normal store. It will be open six days per week, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. However, during game days it will operate under special hours. “The idea for the store came about last year, but due to the construction the store was not able to open until this year,” David Kent, director of the university bookstore, said. “It will have most of the sideline apparel, and around homecoming a new collection of apparel will be shown, called ‘Neyland Stadium Exclusive.’” The opening of the new store was met with festivities. The ribbon-cutting ceremony started at 6 p.m. UT cheerleaders and the Pride of the Southland Band played and cheered to get the crowd going. Chris Fuller, senior associate athletic director, Mike Hamilton, UT men’s athletic director, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and Kent each spoke before the store officially opened and the first of many shoppers entered the store. The first 100 fans who visited the store after the ceremony received a discount between 25 and 50 percent on an item in the store. “Vol Calls,” the official call-in show of the university, aired live from Gate 20. “Vol Calls” is the weekly call-in talk show that takes questions from UT fans from all over the country. A crowd of people gathered to be the first to look through the merchandise. Chelsea Holland, freshman in nursing, was among them, and she said the store was amazing and she loved it. She liked the selection, and the merchandise made her feel like a part of the team. Logan Peterson, freshman in sports management, who happened to find out about the Tennessee Official Team Shop opening through a friend, was another shopper. He said that it was a nice store, but not much different from the other ones. For some students, it was a complete surprise to learn that Neyland Stadium had a new sports store. Lyndsay Noonan, senior in advertising, said that it was the first time that she heard of a new store in the stadium and was curious about it. She said that the store was likely more for visitors who want to avoid the traffic of the UC than for students and faculty. Kent said that his wish is that the store will create an official experience for the fans and become a part of the institution.
Tara Sripunvoraskul• The Daily Beacon
A common sight at the beginning of every semester is the cluster of jewelry stands set up on the Pedestrian Mall. Here, students ask for different sizes of rings, which are on display.