KRVN Chat with the Chancellor

Ronnie Green Author

10/11/2021 Added

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Ronnie Green talks about the new Collaborative Biosecurity Laboratory on East Campus, the Nebraska Innovation Studio grand reopening, and the homecoming festivities last week.

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[0:00] Bryce Doeschot with the Rural Radio Network
[0:02] and our weekly "Chat with the Chancellor" program.
[0:04] This week, we're joined by the chancellor
[0:05] of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Ronnie Green.
[0:08] Dr. Green, good to have you back in the studio.
[0:09] Thanks for being here.
[0:10] Good to be here, Bryce.
[0:11] Well, let's talk about some of the recent events
[0:13] that have been happening on the Lincoln campus.
[0:14] First, the IANR
[0:16] and the National Strategic Research Institute
[0:18] held a ribbon ceremony, and this is to open
[0:21] the Collaborative Biosecurity Laboratory.
[0:23] Tell our listeners more about what's going on here,
[0:25] and overall, how it fits into the mission of UNL.
[0:28] Well, Bryce, as Nebraska's flagship land-grant university,
[0:31] we consider ourselves really to be unparalleled
[0:34] amongst research universities
[0:36] in opportunity, engagement, innovation,
[0:38] lifelong experiential learning.
[0:40] That's particularly true
[0:42] in agricultural research and development,
[0:44] which has been a long-standing strength
[0:46] of the University of Nebraska
[0:48] through our more than 150-year history,
[0:50] where we're always seeking bold solutions
[0:53] to really complex problems.
[0:55] One of our six aims
[0:57] in our current five-year strategic plan,
[0:59] what we call N2025 for UNL,
[1:02] is to focus our research and our scholarship,
[1:05] our creative activity, and our student experiences
[1:07] on these big kind of grand challenge areas,
[1:11] critical to Nebraska and to the world.
[1:13] And so I can think of really no better-positioned university
[1:17] to lead with a new collaborative biosecurity laboratory,
[1:20] like we cut the ribbon on here a week before last on campus,
[1:27] both in terms of us being the center of agriculture
[1:30] in the United States.
[1:31] We refer to ourselves
[1:32] as being in the middle of everywhere and everything,
[1:33] and certainly that's true
[1:35] around agriculture
[1:36] and being both a leader in the agricultural sciences
[1:39] but also in military and defense innovation
[1:42] with the National Strategic Research Institute.
[1:45] So we did just cut the ribbon on a new five-year partnership
[1:49] to help safeguard the US food supply
[1:51] and the IANR Institute of Ag. and Natural Resources
[1:55] and the National Strategic Research Institute
[1:58] at the University's Collaborative Biosecurity Laboratory.
[2:00] It's located
[2:02] in our Ken Morrison Life Sciences Research Center
[2:06] on east campus.
[2:07] Kenny Morrison, many of your listeners will remember
[2:10] as a leader in agriculture
[2:12] and around the world in many ways,
[2:15] was the benefactor that established that center
[2:18] about 12 years ago on our campus.
[2:21] The purpose of the Collaborative Laboratory
[2:26] is to increase our research and development
[2:29] in agricultural and natural resources security,
[2:33] defense, and countermeasures.
[2:35] So think about safety of the food supply
[2:38] in a biosecurity way.
[2:41] Our biological defense, bio-surveillance, bio-detection,
[2:45] and diagnostic tools that are used in that way,
[2:49] as well as pandemic preparedness related to food systems.
[2:53] And we certainly know what that looks like
[2:55] even most recently with the pandemic
[2:59] that we're experiencing.
[3:01] The lab is located, as I mentioned,
[3:04] in the Ken Morrison Life Sciences Research Center,
[3:06] which is also the home to our Nebraska Center for Virology,
[3:09] our world-renowned effort
[3:12] that we started here about 10 years ago
[3:14] with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[3:17] gives access to that laboratory
[3:19] to other molecular life scientists across the university.
[3:23] Our biomedical engineers that will work
[3:25] with that collaborative lab as well,
[3:30] as well as members of the NCV,
[3:33] the Nebraska Center for Virology.
[3:35] Josh Santarpia is the lead for this new laboratory.
[3:40] Josh is with the Nebraska Strategic Research Institute
[3:44] as the research director for chem-bio programs within NSRI.
[3:49] He also is an associate professor
[3:51] of microbiology and pathology
[3:53] at the University of Nebraska Medical Center
[3:55] and adjunct faculty member in IANR
[3:57] here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[4:00] The NSRI, just for the benefit of your listeners,
[4:04] I know they've heard about it before,
[4:06] it is a big deal at the University of Nebraska,
[4:10] this falls underneath that partnership as well,
[4:14] is one of 14 university-affiliated research centers
[4:17] affiliated with the Department of Defense.
[4:21] And ours is the only one that is with a combatant command
[4:25] associated with STRATCOM,
[4:28] here in Nebraska, located in Omaha's, we're all aware.
[4:34] Our researchers and our students
[4:36] as well as our academic and private partners
[4:38] work with DoD and other federal agencies
[4:41] to meet their evolving needs in their security objectives.
[4:46] So this is a part of underneath the NSRI,
[4:51] collaboratively with our Institute
[4:53] of Ag. and Natural Resources,
[4:54] and we're very excited about it.
[4:56] Well, Dr. Green, a lot of our listeners know
[4:57] that we're having today's conversation
[4:59] from Lincoln at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
[5:01] The Rural Radio Network is proud to call NIC home
[5:03] for our Lincoln offices.
[5:05] Another entity that calls this place home, though,
[5:07] is the Nebraska Innovation Studio.
[5:08] In fact, we can see it from our window here.
[5:10] They recently hosted a grand reopening.
[5:12] What do you like and what can you tell us about that studio?
[5:15] Well, Bryce, you might remember,
[5:17] I think you were a student at the time,
[5:18] if I remember correctly, here at UNL,
[5:21] when Innovation Campus was first being conceptualized
[5:26] and the State Fair was moving to Grand Island
[5:28] and Innovation Campus was being plotted here in Lincoln.
[5:33] The last-remaining building that we preserved
[5:38] from the former State Fair grounds,
[5:40] was the 4H building,
[5:42] where the livestock arena was
[5:44] and the exhibition halls were for 4H.
[5:47] And as you say,
[5:48] I'm actually looking right across the parking lot
[5:50] in your studio
[5:51] at the west end of that facility
[5:54] that now houses Nebraska Innovation Studio.
[5:57] So when we opened Innovation Campus,
[6:00] and in 2014, we had kind of the beginning of this,
[6:05] what now is Nebraska Innovation Studio
[6:08] in a makerspace model,
[6:10] which means a place where makers could come to make things
[6:15] with tools and infrastructure available,
[6:19] and a makerspace for creativity.
[6:22] In 2014, I remember walking in that end,
[6:25] that first-floor end of the 4H exhibit hall,
[6:29] former 4H exhibit hall,
[6:30] and it was kind of cavernous, right?
[6:33] There were eight or nine pieces of equipment
[6:35] at that time in there and a lot of space,
[6:38] but we were starting, so to speak.
[6:42] Fast forward now to 2021,
[6:45] and we just a couple of weeks ago had the grand reopening
[6:49] of Nebraska Innovation Studio,
[6:50] kind of combined coming out of
[6:52] and following this time of COVID
[6:54] when there's been more restrictions there.
[6:56] And during that time, we actually grew the studio as well.
[7:00] It's now wall-to-wall packed with every form
[7:04] of infrastructure and equipment you can think of
[7:07] for creating
[7:09] everything from metalwork to woodwork to 3D printing
[7:14] to graphic design type work
[7:17] to clothwork and quilting
[7:18] and fabrication of cloth kind of related materials.
[7:23] Supported heavily with private philanthropy.
[7:26] About $2.5 million has been supported privately
[7:30] in indirect funds to help build out this studio
[7:33] and to develop it into one that's really unparalleled
[7:38] in this region of the country.
[7:40] It also has classrooms in it.
[7:41] We have four to five classes now
[7:44] that are taught in Nebraska Innovation Studio,
[7:46] and years of architecture, emerging media arts,
[7:48] and screen printing.
[7:50] So it's just exciting to have that facility here on campus,
[7:54] the engagement with the community in Lincoln
[7:56] and across the state.
[7:58] Led very ably,
[7:59] I should mention and call out David Martin,
[8:03] who is the director of Nebraska Innovation Studio
[8:05] and has been much of the genesis behind its growth
[8:08] and fully equipping it out over these past years.
[8:12] And it was actually the brainchild,
[8:14] I should give full credit here to Professor Shane Farritor,
[8:19] who is a mechanical engineering professor
[8:21] with the University,
[8:23] a big believer in makerspaces.
[8:25] He was the initial concept behind
[8:27] what has become Nebraska Innovation Studio.
[8:29] Shane himself is another resident
[8:31] here of Nebraska Innovation Campus
[8:33] with his own company that he started, Virtual Incision,
[8:36] developing robotic surgery,
[8:38] methodology, and equipment here on campus as well.
[8:42] So, exciting to see it bustling
[8:45] and back, grand reopened again
[8:48] with Nebraska Innovation Studio
[8:49] at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
[8:51] Things are always growing here
[8:52] at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
[8:53] Dr. Green, before we let you go,
[8:55] we can't forget about homecoming.
[8:56] That took place last weekend.
[8:57] Always a good opportunity for students, faculty, and staff
[9:00] to come together to celebrate UNL, right?
[9:01] It is.
[9:02] We have a lot of traditions in a university
[9:05] that is a part of the DNA of the state here like we are
[9:08] and 150 years of tradition.
[9:11] So it was great to have homecoming last week,
[9:14] a little over a week ago when we played Northwestern
[9:17] on last Saturday.
[9:19] And the traditions that involve everything from,
[9:24] what I've always thought of as the gesture competition.
[9:26] They actually call it Showtime now.
[9:29] That was part of that week
[9:31] where groups compete with one another,
[9:33] blood drives, corn stock,
[9:36] homecoming concerts,
[9:37] the parade that we experienced a little over a week ago,
[9:41] and the homecoming choir
[9:43] is always a big part of that tradition as well.
[9:45] A lot of alumni back for a lot of different events.
[9:48] I had to rest for a day after all of that last weekend
[9:52] to catch my breath myself, I got to admit.
[9:56] But today, of course, we have another game
[10:00] following homecoming, with Michigan in town to play tonight.
[10:04] Very pleased about that
[10:05] and looking forward to another great weekend here on campus.
[10:08] Before I let you go, did my eyes see correctly?
[10:10] Were you part of some of the homecoming festivities,
[10:12] perhaps a student dance or something like that?
[10:15] I get my arm twisted occasionally
[10:17] and there is a group on campus
[10:19] that is known as the Innocents Society.
[10:22] The Innocents are a long-standing tradition here
[10:25] for over a hundred years at the University.
[10:27] It's considered the chancellor's senior honorary society.
[10:30] 13 members of the senior class are selected
[10:33] to be Innocents every year.
[10:35] And they were one of the teams competing
[10:37] in the Showtime competition on Monday night.
[10:40] So they did talk me into doing a little skit with them,
[10:42] where I showed my age and some dance moves probably,
[10:46] but always fun to be part of that.
[10:49] I think we had close to 2,000 students
[10:51] on the field that night.
[10:53] They actually did it outside
[10:55] for the first time in a long time
[10:56] on the Vine Street Fields on campus.
[10:58] So yeah, we had a little fun,
[11:00] and I think I actually was supposed to be Slim Shady,
[11:03] whatever that means, so anyway.
[11:06] UNL chancellor Dr. Ronnie Green
[11:07] lending a few of his minutes here
[11:08] to give us an update from the Lincoln campus.
[11:10] Dr. Green, I always appreciate seeing you.
[11:12] Good to see you, Bryce,
[11:13] and cheer for the Huskers tonight against Michigan.
[11:15] Go Big Red.
[11:16] I'm Bryce Doeschot, reporting on the Rural Radio Network.

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