Holladay Lecture - September 23, 2004

Science Opportunities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a broad research laboratory offering forefront facilities in materials science, nuclear physics, computational science, genome biology, environmental science, and increasingly neutron scattering.

The huge Spallation Neutron Source will open in 2006 as the world's best source of pulsed neutrons for experiments by users.

The Department of Energy has committed to fund the country's largest computer at ORNL.

The highest resolution electron microscope sits at ORNL as the prime user facility.

The Holifield facility is the best radioactive-beam accelerator facility until the large Rare Isotope Accelerator is constructed in the next decade.

These and other assets are applied to a broad range of research programs in fundamental and applied science, in issues relating to energy needs of the country, and increasingly in challenges in national and homeland security. A crucial aspect of the strength of ORNL as a research laboratory is its strong collaborations with universities. Vanderbilt has played a leadership role at ORNL for decades in physics and is poised to greatly expand its partnership with the laboratory in its new role as a "core university."