COLOMBIA – After the University of Tennessee joined forces in a research partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, it managed to more than quadruple the research dollars that flowed through the institution over a decade.
The University of South Carolina hopes to achieve similar results in its new alliance with the Savannah River National Laboratory, which is 50 miles west of the capital near Aiken.
Over the years, the Savannah River lab has stalled, said Hossein Haj-Hariri, dean of the USC Faculty of Engineering and Computing. Its funding has been combined with that of the Savannah River nuclear waste dump, and scientific research has been replaced by environmental cleanup work at the site.
Originally established in the 1950s as a study center that assisted in the development of the country’s nuclear arsenal, the laboratory would be largely consumed by research that supported the cleaning of hazardous materials and the containment work of Savannah River and other national nuclear facilities.
But in December, the United States Department of Energy transformed the laboratory into a separate entity, with its own budget, and awarded the Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Institute a $ 3.8 billion contract for its management.
Upon winning the award, Battelle partnered with USC, as well as Clemson University, Georgia Tech, University of Georgia and South Carolina State University in this collaboration agreement.
Schools are expected to flood the laboratory with dozens of experts and hundreds of students committed to returning it to its mission as a center for scientific and technological advancement.
Instead of $ 300 million a year going to the research lab, Haj-Hariri expects this to triple to close to $ 1 billion.
“And it will be spent (in South Carolina),” he said. “It is real money that will flow through the region.”
The whole process started about five years ago. It was his interest in the laboratory that drew Haj-Hariri from his post at the University of Virginia to USC and was one of the first visits he made when he arrived.
South Carolina’s largest university has worked closely with the laboratory in the past, obtaining an occasional $ 100,000 research project, as well as some larger proposals that have yielded several million dollars in research dollars.
When the contract to manage the laboratory began to be disputed and it looked like it could be removed from the nuclear site, the USC faculty began hosting each of the bidders for two-day visits to discuss partnerships. Haj-Hariri said Battelle has become a clear choice, given his experience in running eight of the 17 national laboratories across the country.
“I think they understand the research,” said Haj-Hariri. “They have allowed the labs to come up with new scientific ideas and follow them up and this is the best we can hope for in a national laboratory.”
The prospect of being on the ground floor while the laboratory redefines its research focus for the future was exciting.
Today, the Oak Ridge laboratory, another former nuclear weapons site, has a budget of $ 2 billion after it was able to reinvent itself, with the help of the University of Tennessee and Battelle. It opened the country’s largest computing center and entered the world of 3-D printing.
“So they picked a few winners, one after the other,” said Haj-Hariri, and the school’s engineering department went from $ 20 million in annual research dollars to about $ 95 million.
Haj-Hariri has doubled his own department’s research dollars in the past five years to $ 36 million. He would like to double again, double, and for that, a great partnership like this is necessary.
In Savannah River, the focus is on electrochemistry, nuclear-compatible building materials, cybersecurity and sensors capable of detecting low-level radiation sources worldwide, and USC has leading employees in these areas.
When it came time to write the management proposal for the lab, two USC employees vied for the spot – Haj-Hariri’s associate dean, Mike Matthews, and his close friend Bond Calloway, the lab’s former No. 2. Their effort would win, establishing the laboratory and its university partners for growth.
“We expect (financial) resources that will allow the university to increase its faculty size by 10 to 12 people,” said Haj-Hariri.
The school also expects funding to send up to 40 postdoctoral students and 100 graduate students to work in the laboratory. They also hope to expand the number of professors in dual positions at the university and in the laboratory.
USC plans to explore its chemistry, environmental science, engineering and computer departments to fill these vacancies.
“This is a transformative opportunity for our research community and will position UofSC to reach new heights of research excellence,” said Prakash Nagarkatti, vice president of research. “Our role in managing the Savannah River National Laboratory will help us attract new innovative teachers and excellent students to join our ranks.”
USC Aiken will also establish an educational summer camp for high school students, focusing on advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity and virtual reality research.
“It means developing the workforce at all levels, specifically reaching students at all levels, up to high school or even younger,” said Haj-Hariri. “The reach of this laboratory will be global. The impact of UofSC in the future will be greatly expanded as a result of this partnership. “