He is ever the sharp dresser, not the slightest bit frazzled or unkempt on a muggy April morning when the temperature is already creeping toward 80 degrees. You would never guess that just minutes earlier he arrived from a meeting across town, in a convertible no less, to keep his 11:30 appointment. Dr. Lee Riedinger simply offers a welcoming smile, drapes his crisp blue jacket across the back of a chair, and sits down to calmly explain exactly how things are different now. 
For three years his calendar entries were items like “budget due in Dean’s office,” or “review faculty committees.” His meetings sometimes included teenagers. And among his concerns were recruiting graduate students and explaining the importance of service courses to the College of Arts and Sciences. That was what it was like to be the head of the physics department. But two years ago he packed up his office in the Nielsen Physics Building and headed to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. There he became the Deputy Director for Science and Technology when UT, with its partner Battelle, took over ORNL management in April 2000. Now it’s a whole different set of memos and meetings, budgets and concerns.
“National laboratories are fundamentally different from universities,” he explained.
While a university has several roles to play, from sponsoring research to teaching students to public service, a national laboratory is more streamlined in its goals.
“It’s fun to be at a high-tech place highly focused on research,” Dr. Riedinger said, when the technology, expertise, and resources are all readily available. The centerpiece of his responsibilities is orchestrating all those assets.
“My first priority is overseeing the total research program at the lab,” he said, paying particular attention to keeping communication open across disciplines and divisions. To that end, he is responsible for reinvestment, with some $20 million to allocate to meet ORNL’s goals. Roughly $15 million goes toward lab-directed research and development.
“That’s a way to start new areas of research,” and is essentially seed funding, he explained.
The remaining funds are earmarked for program development, including scouting for sponsorship, writing proposals and planning initiatives.
Another key component of the job is developing university partnerships. Dr. Riedinger is ORNL’s primary contact with UT and the lab’s core university partners (Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State, the University of Virginia and Virginia Polytechnic Institute), as well as with Oak Ridge Associated Universities. He works closely with the joint faculty program, wherein new scientists are hired with joint university-ORNL appointments, and the joint institutes, which combine the respective resources of university partners and the laboratory to strengthen facilities for research and education.
“We’re trying to bring universities more intimately into the laboratory,” he said. “It’s important to the laboratory and to the country.”
His experience as a physics professor and department head, as well as a four-year stint as UT’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, prepared him well for the challenge.
“I understand both arenas pretty well,” he said.
For Lee Riedinger, understanding is another requirement for keeping ORNL’s research program running smoothly.
“Being a diplomat is very important,” he stressed. He has to balance the goals and challenges of the research staff while at the same time handling a certain degree of public relations outside the national lab. The fact that he has maintained a long-running research program in nuclear physics goes a long way in building trust, not only with other scientists but also with media, political, and agency representatives, because it illustrates that he’s a scientist as well as an administrator.
“Credentials mean a lot,” he explained.
Still, he enjoys being the face of ORNL when the situation demands it.
“Being kind of a public spokesman for the lab is fun,” he said. “You get to brag about all the neat stuff going on by so many different people at the lab.”
And unlike the more technical and specialized talks he’s accustomed to giving in nuclear physics, a general discussion of ORNL’s success and future captivates a broader audience.
“They’re willing to listen and be dazzled,” he said.
To listen to him talk about this job for more than three minutes is to see how much he loves being part of the national laboratory. He did his graduate work at ORNL, spent time there as a faculty member, and helped launch the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research. So how does he feel about becoming one of the lab’s most visible leaders?
“It’s really a profound honor,” he said.
Getting StartedWhen UT-Battelle assumed management of Oak Ridge National Laboratory two years ago, the new leadership team had a few challenges. Dr. Riedinger explained that although there was plenty of space for researchers, much of it was old and inferior. While universities can eke out renovations even in times of poor budgetary outlook, “that doesn’t happen at national labs,” he said. “There’s rarely infrastructure money.” So while funds might be available for building a new project (the Spallation Neutron Source, for example), there’s no real budget for maintaining existing facilities. UT-Battelle is following an aggressive plan to build five new buildings, private space on land leased from the Department of Energy, to tackle that problem and, it is hoped, to attract new people. Dr. Riedinger said he gained some experience with this approach 20 years ago when he worked on starting the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research, a collaborative effort between the UT, Vanderbilt, and ORNL. Aside from space, a second major problem he faced after coming on board was the high cost of doing business. “The overhead is roughly twice as high as at a university,” Dr. Riedinger said, because of issues dealing with radiation safety, meeting government regulations, and the absence of infrastructure funds. He conceded that this makes all national labs expensive to run, but “Oak Ridge was even at the high end of national labs,” which hurt their competitive ability. Since taking over, UT-Battelle has issued two layoffs of around 500 people total, mostly those on overhead. Now, Dr. Riedinger said, there’s a greater emphasis on meeting budgets and keeping overhead costs steady throughout the fiscal year. Overall, however, he said “the lab is in really good shape.” New opportunities in neutron science, nanoscience, computational sciences, nuclear energy, and national security all stand to heighten ORNL’s profile. The Spallation Neutron Source and recently refurbished High Flux Isotope Reactor will make the region a world leader in neutron science. A new 40,000-square foot computer room will make ORNL the first DOE science lab working within the hundreds of teraflop computing regime. A new research division in nuclear science and technology will address issues like global warming and using nuclear power to ease national dependence on foreign oil. “This is one of the biggest energy research and development labs in the country,” he said. “We have to be mission-focused.” Keeping up with all the various divisions, programs, goals and responsibilities means a full plate for Lee Riedinger. He said the pace is one the biggest challenges he faces. “A laboratory is a fast-moving place,” he said. He explained that can be a positive element in that “you can make things happen more quickly,” by bringing people and resources together at a faster clip than at a university. The downside, however, is the pressure it brings in terms of visibility, expectations, and responsibility. Does that pressure ever make him misty for his old gig as department head? “There’s something very special about a university,” particularly the “presence of bright young people,” he said. Ultimately, he would like to give up his administrative responsibilities gradually, easing back down the ladder and returning to his true passion: nuclear physics experimentation. He said his ideal retirement would be to join a research group as a post-doc as sort of a return to that happy period when his only concern was analyzing data without the pressure of writing proposals or justifying the project. “Going cold turkey, I think, is hard,” he said. “I would like to end my career as I began it.”Cross Sections, Spring/Summer 2002 Issue, Contents Page UT Physics News & Notes Page UT Physics Home Page This page was last updated on June 7, 2002. Please send comments to cal@utk.edu. |