from September 30, 2003, News-Sentinel

original URL:
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_2308869,00.html

ORNL $3.9M grant plugs in scientists

By News Sentinel staff
September 30, 2003

OAK RIDGE - Oak Ridge National Laboratory will use a $3.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish high-speed computer connections that disseminate science data to researchers across the United States.

The money will be used specifically to help researchers get massive amounts of data coming from Oak Ridge experiments at the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source - currently under construction - and the High Flux Isotope Reactor.

A network hub and high-performance network connections will provide access to the lab's top scientific tools via TeraGrid - billed as the fastest research network in the world. The grid will operate at 40 gigabits - delivering 40 billion bits of information per second.

TeraGrid is part of the National Science Foundation's efforts to build a "cyber infrastructure" that supports U.S. science research and education.

"ORNL's Center for Computational Sciences will now be able to provide the nation's research community with expanded access to extraordinary neutron science facilities,'' Ray Orbach, director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science, said in a prepared statement.

ORNL Director Jef Wadsworth said the grant would make better use of the lab's unique research facilities.

The Oak Ridge proposal was supported by the lab's university partners: University of Tennessee, Duke University, Florida State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and North Carolina State University.

The National Science Foundation also funded two other proposals - one at the University of Texas, the other a partnership of Indiana University and Purdue University.