By Bryan Mitchell, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jun. 21--More than a century ago, University of Tennessee President Thomas Humes regularly met with students in his office in the South College building.
The year was 1872, and students could walk from their dormitory rooms to Humes' office, where they could a view the campus in its infancy.
That was years before the building was filled with classrooms but less than a decade after Union troops had occupied The Hill during the Civil War.
Today, the oldest building on campus rests quietly in the shadow of the more picturesque Ayres Hall but houses some of the brightest, most progressive and, thanks to a recent research initiative, well-funded scientists on campus.
Nestled in a spacious corner office high above students shuffling between classes on The Hill, Ward Plummer, director of the Center for Excellence in Advance Materials, works to construct one of the three centers of research excellence not associated with human health.
That does not mean, however, that the advanced materials center merits any less scientific value. 'There is hardly any part of your world that is not touched by advanced materials,' Plummer said.
Plummer will employ the $5 million grant to explore the creation of materials through computer-intensive modeling and experimental research.
'We want to tailor (materials) to do whatever you want them to do,' Plummer explained.
To do so, Plummer will use a multidisciplinary approach, calling on chemists, physicists and engineering from UT and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The team of researchers will delve deep within the molecular structure in search of new ways to manipulate atoms. All in an effort to produce improved materials for everything from tennis rackets to test tubes.
Plummer, who approaches his research with a respect for history coupled with an urge to help shape the future, has set a motto for his staff to work by:
'Whoever controls the materials, controls the science and technology.'
To illustrate that point, the eight-year UT professor points to the correlation between the advances in human civilization and the discovery of new and improved materials.
From the Stone Age through the Bronze Age and now into the Silicon Age, man's ability to first harness and later manipulate new materials has played a major role in the construction of the modern world.
With the help of the fresh funds, Plummer hopes the center will become one of the top five for advanced materials in the nation.
'Once you get one of these grants, you get the stamp of approval in the research community,' Plummer said.
Plummer will soon begin to allocate the funds: hiring new faculty, updating materials and raising salaries for existing graduate students.
It's a formula that's being followed by nearly all nine directors of the centers of excellence. That's because the directors, like Plummer, realize it will take talented scientists to generate the 4-to-1 dollar return expected. If that return is not realized, later allocations of grant funds are expected to be withheld.
'It's a carrot, not a stick,' Plummer said.
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(c) 2001, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
