On April 1, Georgia Tech joined five other core universities in managing science and technology research activities at Oak Ridge, a U.S. Department of Energy facility now operated by the University of Tennessee and the Battelle Institute.
The focused-research areas under way or under development at Oak Ridge embrace materials science, nanotechnology, nanoscience, transportation, biotechnology, and environmental science and technology.
"The list actually reads like Georgia Tech's main thrust areas," says Vice Provost Dr. Charles Liotta, who is also dean of graduate students and a Regents' professor of chemistry and biochemistry. "We think the Tech-Oak Ridge combination is a natural."
Tech is managing these Oak Ridge research activities in collaboration with Duke University, North Carolina State University, Florida State University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the University of Virginia.
"Some faculty who already have relationships with Oak Ridge said this (new partnership) will make those relationships even better and more productive," Liotta says. "Everybody is very excited about this."
Dr. Zhong Lin Wang, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, is Georgia Tech's liaison for Oak Ridge research related to materials, nanoscience and nanotechnology. Wang is monitoring research activities and identifying project leadership and collaborative opportunities among all of the parties involved at Oak Ridge.
"The core universities serve two roles," Wang says. "One is to collaborate with Oak Ridge in various research initiatives, and the other is to oversee and help direct the research operation there to help make it operate more efficiently and more fully use its facilities for research."
Tech will seat a representative on each science committee of Oak Ridge's thrust areas and also be the beneficiary of new, joint faculty positions in those areas. The association with Oak Ridge will also provide Tech with extra research muscle that could provide an edge in competition for the establishment of new national research centers or programs, Wang adds.
"Our involvement here goes beyond this specific facility," says Dr. Gary Schuster, dean of the College of Sciences. "Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a national resource. It has facilities that are available nowhere else in the world. To become a part of the consortium that is responsible for its management gives us at Georgia Tech an opportunity to participate in decision-making about those facilities. It will work to the advantage of Georgia Tech to know where it is going in advance of when it gets there. The availability of that information will allow scientists and engineers on our campus to plan better and take advantage of the facilities at Oak Ridge."
By 2006, those facilities will include the most powerful Spallation Neutron Source in the world. (See sidebar.) Its accessibility to Tech faculty will bring a tremendous boost to research activities, and also foster relationships with Oak Ridge and the other core universities in new areas.
But no one is waiting on the neutron source. Discussions began last summer about the best ways to work with each other, says Dr. David McDowell, a Regents' professor in Tech's School of Mechanical Engineering. He organized a core-university workshop, titled "Strategic Southeastern Partnerships: Science and Technology for Energy and Materials."
Workshop participants discussed the idea of building a virtual laboratory in advanced materials at Oak Ridge. The lab could facilitate researchers working together without having to be in the same location and even allow for remote control of instrumentation.
Such a facility may also provide the basis for a "virtual southeastern university," McDowell says, where the core universities "could band together and offer graduate-level courses in areas related to atomic-level characterization, imaging and materials science — areas so specialized that no single university could or would offer them."
photo by Gary Meek
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In collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists, chemical engineer Dr. Jeffrey Hsieh began development of an energy-efficient, cost-effective black liquor concentration process for the pulping industry.
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Meanwhile, Georgia Tech is taking advantage of an opportunity to demonstrate leadership in one of its core competencies. Oak Ridge is starting an advanced materials center, and Tech is helping launch the center with a major conference on nanotechnology and nanoscience.
"The conference will involve other universities, industry and government laboratories," Wang explains. "It's a good opportunity to increase our visibility in this very high-interest emerging area of science and technology."
Liotta adds: "Georgia Tech is already strong in nanoscience and nanotechnology. As a consequence, we are ideally poised to be a leader in both regional and national initiatives."
Georgia Tech's latest affiliation with Oak Ridge is built upon a relationship that dates back to the lab's founding during World War II, when Tech alumni were recruited to work on the Manhattan Project. Ever since, the Tech campus has served as a valuable source for recruiting the engineers and scientists who conduct an increasing scope of research and development at the Tennessee complex.
Descriptions of some Georgia Tech/Oak Ridge projects help illustrate the mutual benefits of the collaboration.
Improving Pulp and Paper Processing
In 1995, the Thermal and Environmental Control Group of Oak Ridge's Efficiency and Renewables Research Section began providing thermal science support to the pulp and paper industry.
With private industry collaboration, Dr. Jeffrey Hsieh of the School of Chemical Engineering worked with Oak Ridge staff to investigate thermal characteristics of the evaporative concentration of black liquors, a critical technology in the pulping process.
The work provided an initial step in development of an energy-efficient, cost-effective black liquor concentration process. Additional activities included the construction of bench-top and pilot-plant falling-film evaporators, and paper mill interactions on commercial-size evaporators.
Engineering Bacteria That Keep Uranium in Place
Keeping waste uranium in its place is the goal of a project under way at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with assistance from Georgia Tech. Oxidized uranium is soluble, which means it may be carried away from disposal sites by rain or streams. To prevent that possibility, researchers are developing a process that renders the waste insoluble. The process causes waste uranium to drop from the water into sediment, where it remains.
The ingenious approach is to combine uranium waste with phosphorous (phosphate), which produces an insoluble mineral. But phosphorous doesn't disperse well enough on its own to reach all of the uranium, so researchers add organic phosphorus material to it. However, while the improved organic phosphorous form disperses throughout an area as desired, it won't readily combine with uranium.
To fix that problem, Dr. Patricia Sobecky, an assistant professor in the School of Biology, is genetically engineering bacteria that, after the organic phosphorous has been spread, can be added to the mix. The bacteria separate the organic material from the phosphorous, thereby aiding the combination of uranium and phosphorous into an insoluble mineral.
photo by Gary Meek
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Bacteria genetically engineered by biologist Dr. Patricia Sobecky are added to organic phosphorous that is spread over uranium waste to make it insoluble. The bacteria separate the organic material from the phosphorous, thereby aiding the combination of uranium and phosphorous into an insoluble mineral. The process could prevent uranium waste from being carried away from disposal sites by rain or streams.
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The technique, which faces carefully controlled field testing, may also be effective in removing other metals from groundwater.
Helping Buildings Breathe Easier
Making buildings more airtight and energy efficient is often achieved at the expense of sufficient supply ventilation and a lack of humidity control. These factors can result in moisture buildup and poor indoor air quality known as "sick building syndrome."
When Oak Ridge scientists were looking for new ways to design energy-efficient space conditioning systems that provide high levels of humidity control, they relied in part on data gathered by Georgia Tech.
A team of Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) researchers headed by Dr. Charlene Bayer helped conduct a field study to verify the positive effects of humidity control and continuous ventilation on the indoor air quality of schools and the health of schoolchildren. To develop baseline data for schools in moderate and hot, humid climates, the researchers studied four schools in the metropolitan Atlanta area and six in Georgia's coastal region.
Five schools in the study had active humidity control and continuous ventilation systems, and five did not. The schools were statistically matched as closely as possible. The study has been used to develop recommendations and HVAC design considerations for improving indoor air quality in schools and other large buildings.
The GTRI scientists also involved schoolchildren in the project. Continuous monitors were placed in the schools for more than one year. Children took readings from the monitors and e-mailed the data to GTRI, which maintained a Web site where the children could view the data as it was analyzed, allowing them to view "science in action" and understand more about data gathering and interpretation.
Putting Technology on the Road
The 1996 Summer Olympics created an opportunity to design and test a high-tech traffic management system. Under the auspices of the Federal Highway Administration, the Atlanta Driver Advisory System was developed by a consortium that included Georgia Tech, GTRI and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Bill Youngblood, a senior research engineer in GTRI's Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory, served as project manager.
Two hundred cars and trucks were outfitted for the test with on-board navigation systems displaying real-time traffic and routing information transmitted by a traffic information control center. Signals from road sensors and satellites — part of the Intelligent Transportation System Infrastructure developed to support the project — helped the control center pinpoint each driver's location with respect to known traffic bottlenecks so alternate routes could be suggested via the on-board display.
Uncovering the Nature of Matter
Georgia Tech School of Physics faculty and students enjoy access to specialized equipment at Oak Ridge, such as that found at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility. There, two of Dr. John Wood's graduate students, Brian MacDonald and W. David Kulp, conduct experiments involving a 25-million-volt accelerator and recoil mass spectrometer. The equipment allows the scientists to produce excited nuclei and study their decay to learn more about nuclear structure.
For more information, contact Dr. Z.L. Wang, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0245. (Telephone: 404-894-8008) (E-mail:
zhong.wang@mse.gatech.edu)
