UT-Battelle Contract Extension at Oak Ridge National Lab Accelerates Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley Momentum

KNOXVILLE and OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- High tech researchers and the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley economic development partnership welcomed this week's announcement by Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu to extend the contract of UT-Battelle to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory for another five years.

UT-Battelle, a partnership of the University of Tennessee, which is headquartered in Knoxville, and the Battelle Memorial Institute, has managed the lab since April 2000. During that time, the lab has grown from 3,700 to 4,700 employees, research funding has increased from $640 million to $1.6 billion and UT-Battelle received $338 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to construct a new chemical material sciences building and to upgrade the world's fastest supercomputer, Jaguar.

Not surprisingly, the national lab figures heavily in the Innovation Valley's promising economic outlook.

Gov. Phil Bredesen said Chu's decision "ensures Tennessee will be well-positioned to continue to attract research investments and other economic benefits" generated by the lab.

ORNL director Thom Mason, who also serves as chairman of the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley partnership, said the lab will focus on "an increasing range of opportunities for collaboration and growth with an emphasis on moving our science and technology into the marketplace."

During the past ten years, the lab, often in collaboration with UT and the State, has:

• become a national leader in bioenergy research in cellulosic ethanol conversion technologies
• transformed its outdated physical facilities into a state-of-the-art research center with a campus-style setting
• made lab facilities and expertise more accessible to outside researchers
• built the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source to study materials at the molecular level
• established the Oak Ridge Science and Technology Park – the first of its kind private sector facility built on the campus of a national lab
• named 60 faculty members to joint lab/university appointments
• reached the $90 million milestone in joint research endeavors

The lab's progress further supports the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley partnership's efforts in workforce development, industrial recruiting and business retention throughout a five-county area.   The partnership gives special attention to energy storage, carbon fiber, bioenergy, nuclear component manufacturing and instrumentation, and leverages the region's expertise in sensors and detectors, nuclear energy services and energy related materials, especially for the solar technology. For more information, visit www.knoxvilleoakridge.com or contact technology director Jesse Smith at [email protected] or at 865-228-8794.

Media Representation: Clark Miller Communications

SOURCE Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley