Oak Ridge's ties to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT-K), the state's comprehensive research institution, date back to Oak Ridge's founding. In pursuit of new scientific knowledge and enhanced educational programs, university professors and scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have shared joint teaching and research appointments at the two institutions since the 1940s. Formal ties with Oak Ridge were enhanced with the establishment of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1965. The school, located in the Biology Division of ORNL, uses ORNL's facilities, and its scientists complement UT-K's faculty. In the past few years, UT-K, ORNL, and local business and industry have been working together on economic development activities, particularly in the high-technology sector.
The university's association with the national laboratory provides facilities and resources to students and faculty available at no other American university. Approximately $10 million in direct and indirect contract work is performed for the Department of Energy by UT-K staff and students.
UT-K has close ties with the Tennessee Technology Foundation, which is developing the Technology Corridor between Oak Ridge and Knoxville. Several UT-K faculty members have founded their own firms based on research started in UT-K laboratories. Cooperation between state and federal agencies is vital to the development of entrepreneurial firms. The Consortium of Research Institutions, made up of UT-K, ORNL and the Tennessee Valley Authority, was founded to meet that need.
UT-K's emphasis on new, innovative academic programs, coupled with the development of several multi-million-dollar Chairs of Excellence in specific academic areas, has contributed significantly toward moving the university to the forefront among sister institutions in the Southeast and the nation.
When the Tennessee Better Schools Program was established in the 1980s, UT-K, ORNL, and DOE Oak Ridge Operations Office began looking for ways to strengthen existing ties and form new initiatives. The Science Alliance, largest of the state's Centers of Excellence, was founded to improve science and research programs at UT-K and to expand cooperative ventures with ORNL.
The UT-K/Oak Ridge Distinguished Scientist Program, a major component of the $35-million Science Alliance will bring up to 30 of the nation's most outstanding scientists and engineers to ORNL and UT-K on joint appointments. Distinguished Scientist appointments have been made in physics, nuclear engineering, computer science and mathematics, geological sciences, and biological sciences.
Momentum from institutional cooperation led to the establishment of a Center for Measurement and Control within the UT-K College of Engineering. UT-K's Center for Integrated Engineering and Manufacturing enjoys strong support from ORNL. The departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering both have close ties to research at ORNL.
A Center of Excellence in New Venture Analysis and Entrepreneurship, located in the UT-K College of Business Administration, is supplying trained professionals to business that provide needed consulting services. The Business College's Institute for Productivity through Quality received recognition by leading executives as the best program in the nation using statistical concepts to improve quality and productivity.
In addition to providing significant opportunities for highly technical and business-related graduate programs of interest to employees, the university has a strong commitment to creative interaction with industry. It has pledged to develop programs of specific interest to Oak Ridge firms.
UT-K has recently been recognized in a variety of circles as one of the universities making great strides in training our next generation of technologically outstanding professionals. Joint ventures in science and economic development with ORNL and businesses in Oak Ridge are a vital part of that national recognition.
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