About PNNL
Contact: Clark McCann, University of Washington, (206) 543-1806
Greg Koller, (509) 372-4864
Release date: January 2003
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University of Washington 25 Years of Science and Technology Partnering
Two of the largest research organizations in the Northwest—the University of Washington and the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory—are finding it increasingly practical and productive to work together. By leveraging their many complementary research capabilities, the two institutions can assemble uniquely strong scientific teams and quickly move into new areas.
This kind of collaboration is a powerful tool in meeting challenges that are critical to the nation and to society. Multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional teams of the kinds participating in PNNL/UW partnering are essential to solving complex problems in such areas as health, bioremediation and engineering.
The UW is the state's largest public university, garnering $650 million in public and private research money last year. PNNL conducts more than $550 million a year in research for DOE and the Department of Defense, as well as for other federal agencies and numerous private companies.
Partnering has taken many forms since PNNL and UW signed a memorandum of understanding in 1987, including faculty, staff and student exchanges, joint use of facilities, access to scientific equipment, and the establishment of joint institutes to focus on whole areas of study. Here are a few examples of current efforts.
Joint Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
In April 2001, the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory formed the Joint Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology to study an area of science that is expected to have wide-ranging and dramatic impacts, from materials to health to communication.
Nanoscience and nanotechnology deal with the design of new materials and functional systems that take advantage of the novel physical, chemical and biological properties that often are associated with nano-sized objects. The characteristic size of these objects is billionths of a meter—the width of about four atoms or 1,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.
Multidisciplinary research teams and state-of-the-art facilities complement and expand both institutions' nanoscience capabilities. Resources include the worlds most powerful nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer and other unique instruments in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE user facility on PNNL's Richland campus. Early activities include projects to investigate nano-scale semiconductor materials and chemical sensors, carbon nanotubes, interaction of biological molecules with nanoparticles for medical applications, modeling of nanostructures, and university course development. http://www.pnl.gov/news/2001/01-15.htm and http://www.pnl.gov/nano/institute/index.html
Joint Program in Cell Signaling
The first formal collaboration to result from the nanotechnology agreement was the Joint Program in Cell Signaling, established in spring 2002 to probe mysteries of the cell's inner workings. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists have joined with industry and academic participants in the University of Washington's Cell Systems Initiative to study the ability of a cell to detect and respond to chemical and physical changes in its environment—including detecting and responding to other living cells.
The primary goal of the joint program is to develop tools, computational resources and related technologies to measure and predict changes in the abundance and interactions of each molecule that comprises the living cell. If the science progresses as expected, researchers will be able to develop more effective drugs and know in advance how a particular drug will work within a cell. The modeling could be done on a computer without initial tests on humans. http://www.sysbio.org/resources/collaboration/uw.stm
Joint Institute for Global and Regional Security Studies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington established the Institute for Global and Regional Security Studies (IGRSS) in the fall of 2000 to promote teaching, research, publication and public outreach on security issues of regional and global concern to the United States, including weapons of mass destruction.
The institute is a collaboration between PNNL's Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security and the UW's Jackson School of International Studies and the Department of Political Science. A goal of IGRSS is to develop a better understanding of the threats posed by environmental, energy, and information security issues. It also serves to promote interactions between PNNL science and engineering staff and academic students involved in international studies. http://pnwcgs.pnl.gov/index.asp
Joint Entrepreneurial Program
A program established by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington is cultivating students' entrepreneurial spirit and fulfills a key DOE/PNNL mission to move science from the laboratory to the marketplace. Established in 2001, the technology entrepreneurship program seeks to foster entrepreneurial skills and vision by allowing students to access and analyze PNNL technologies, develop business plans for technologies with commercial potential and perhaps even pursue commercialization.
The arrangement already has one success story. Four graduate students, working with PNNL's New Ventures Office, developed a business plan for a company they called "Cogelix" to commercialize a radiation treatment based on a PNNL-developed technology. The plan won the 2002 grand prize in the university's business plan competition for best plan and best technology. It also placed "unofficial third" in the MBA Jungle Business Plan Challenge—the largest such contest in the United States—and was invited to a closed competition in Japan. http://depts.washington.edu/uweek/archives/2002.06.JUN_06/news_j.html
Ultrasonic Technology for Radioactive Waste Transport
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington frequently collaborate on individual projects. For example, research in light waves at the university is being transferred to the field of ultrasonics at PNNL to develop a novel ultrasonic technology to probe the particle size and viscosity of radioactive wastes. The Department of Energy has millions of gallons of radioactive liquid and sludge wastes that must be retrieved from underground storage tanks. Monitoring sludge particle size while transferring waste through pipelines can prevent waste from plugging the pipeline.
The objective of this three-year DOE-funded project is to create a non-invasive sensor for slurry characterization in real-time on pipelines transporting radioactive wastes. The technology also could have widespread applications in other industries, such as pharmaceuticals, food processing, and petrochemicals. http://www.pnl.gov/sharingscience/pdf/may2002.pdf
Human Interface Technology Laboratory
The University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been collaborating for several years to move human/computer interactions beyond monitors, keyboards and mice. At the UW's Human Interface Technology Laboratory and the HI-SPACE Laboratory at PNNL, researchers are developing a next-generation workspace that blurs the boundaries between physical and electronic information. The most desirable aspects of physical interactions and electronic information are being integrated to enhance user ability to interact with information, promote group dialog, and improve the decision-making process.
For example, technology created jointly by PNNL and UW is enabling the UW's Center for Environmental Visualization to develop a marine exploration system that will generate collaborative, 4-D virtual marine worlds. The system will integrate visual representations and animated 3-D models of geographical information with real-time streamed data from a network of marine sensors and platforms. For the first time, researchers, as well as shore-based learners of all ages, will be able to easily participate in detailed, decades-long studies and experiments on a wide area of seafloor and ocean. http://www.hitl.washington.edu/people/rmay/hispace.html
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