Originally appeared in August 24, 2002 Knoxville News-Sentinel Oak Ridge bureau
URL: http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_1345130,00.html

Ground broken on $10 million ORNL facility

OAK RIDGE - Gov. Don Sundquist and a slew of dignitaries turned out Thursday for groundbreaking ceremonies for new state-sponsored research facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences and the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies will share a $10 million, 52,000-square-foot facility now under construction on ORNL's main campus.

The institute will be managed by the lab and the University of Tennessee.

The project is part of an overall $26 million investment by the state for new facilities at ORNL, a commitment made three years ago when the University of Tennessee submitted a winning proposal to manage the federal laboratory in conjunction with Battelle.

"Without technology, we're going to fall behind," Sundquist said at Thursday's event.

The joint institute will promote computational resources in Oak Ridge and help researchers at UT and other institutions make better use of the high-performance machines available there.

ORNL recently signed an agreement with Cray Corp. to pursue development of the world's fastest supercomputer.

The Center for Advanced Studies will be a think-tank that is expected to bring together scientists and educators from around the country and the world. These experts will address technical challenges and issues of the day.

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