It will be vast. It will be diverse, and it's going to be constant.
ABOUT JEFF CORNETT
› Born: Kentucky› Age: 53› Education: Associate of science degree in criminal justice, Roane State Community College, 1984; bachelor of science in organization management, Tusculum College, 1993; master’s degree in organization management, Tusculum College, 2006› Work: Served on the ORNL Industrial & Economic Development Partnership team for the last 8 years; prior to joining ORNL, president and COO of the National Safe Skies Alliance; former risk consultant with the American Bureau of Shipping assigned to projects with the Department of Homeland Security, Railroad Research Foundation, maritime port operators, and other clients; former sheriff’s deputy in Knox County, Tenn.
ORNL at a glance
› Name: Oak Ridge National Laboratory› Operator: U.S. Department of Energy contracts with UT-Battelle LLC› Staff: 4,559, including scientists and engineers in more than 100 disciplines› Users and visiting scientists: 3,200› Established: 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project by the military to make the first atomic bomb.› Research activities: Clean energy, security and scientitfic discovery through research in computing, neutrons, materials and nuclear technologies.› Budget: $1.5 billion› U.S. patents issued since 2005: 649› Chattanooga office: Jeff Cornett is located in the EPB headquarters building as a manager for industrial and economic development for ORNL
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working with Chattanooga’s EPB in areas such as the smart grid, sensor technology, and electric grid integration and modernization.
The head of a new ORNL office in EPB’s downtown Chattanooga headquarters says he’ll look for other areas that promote tech transfer and help startups.
“We’ll be trying to find partnerships and solve problems,” says Jeff Cornett, who works with businesses and other entities to form partnerships with the Oak Ridge lab.
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., says that while Chattanooga and Oak Ridge are in his Congressional district, strategic communications between the cities was limited.
“It’s critically important we bring these two cities together,” says Fleischmann, who led the effort to secure the office.
He says that the work already done between ORNL and EPB is estimated to have a value of about $21.5 million. He predicts that the expansion of ORNL’s presence will push the value to upwards of $300 million.
“It will be vast. It will be diverse, and it’s going to be constant,” Fleischmann says, adding that the aim is to provide more opportunities to area businesses and entrepreneurs.
Long-term, Fleischmann says, he’d like to see the lab have a freestanding facility in Chattanooga, perhaps something akin to a center for American energy independence.
Cornett, 53, a manager for industrial and economic development at ORNL, says he’ll be at the Chattanooga office when he needs to be, acting as a liaison for the community. One of his jobs will be to try to connect individuals with U.S. Department of Energy programs, says Cornett, who works for UT-Battelle, which manages the lab.
Cornett is also involved in a a state program that supports manufacturers.
“We’ll be looking for manufacturing companies that need assistance,” Cornett says. “We can utilize that state funding to support a project to solve a problem.”
Fleischmann says that ORNL is doing work that’s revolutionizing manufacturing.
“There’s no problem ORNL won’t entertain if it’s facing a manufacturer,” he says.
Cornett says he’ll work with companies in Chattanooga’s Innovation District, a 140-acre parcel in the central city where entrepreneurs, tech-based startups and business incubators can mesh and create a so-called “innovation ecosystem.”
“The key is connecting and understanding problems and being able to identify potential capability,” Cornett says. “We’re looking to solve the big problem a company may have so their business can thrive.”
Having a location in the Innovation District is vital, Fleischmann says, to tapping the science know-how and resources ORNL possesses.
“It will make an ideal addition in the Innovation District,” he says.
Fleischmann says the office is funded through Congressional appropriations to DOE. Fleischmann, who is vice chairman of the House Appropriation Committee’s Energy and Water Subcommittee, said DOE is contracting with UT-Battelle. EPB, meanwhile, is providing the office space at its headquarters.
“Other cities would love to have ORNL there,” Fleischmann says, noting the Chattanooga office is the only one of its kind in Tennessee.
In addition, Fleischmann says that he sees stronger ties between ORNL and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga due to the new office.
“It’s really something that will benefit the engineering programs and science programs,” he says. “It plugs in beautifully to that.”
ORNL already works with UTC’s SIM Center, Cornett says, which serves as a hub in modeling, simulation and high-performance computing.
“They’ve got connectivity into [ORNL’s] high-performance computing center,” he says.
ORNL also has several projects in the area of cyber-security, and there are potential opportunities in that field, Cornett says. In the area of 3-D printing, ORNL has an ongoing project with Chattanooga-based Branch Technology, he says.
In addition, the biggest single construction project ever in Tennessee is ramping up, and Chattanooga area companies have the chance to tap into it. The $6.5 billion Uranium Processing Facility project is underway at the Y-12 National Security Complex near ORNL.
If someone needs information about that project, Cornett says he can direct them to the contractor overseeing the UPF.