Football interview - Rutgers

Ronnie Green Author

09/27/2017 Added

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Steve Goddard and Bill Charlton join Ronnie Green to discuss improvements made to Behlen Laboratory to enable researchers to expand their work in supporting national defense in conjunction with the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska.

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[00:00:00.349]Welcome back.
[00:00:01.238]Countdown to kickoff here on the Huskers Sports Network.
[00:00:02.682]Homecoming day today for the Big Red
[00:00:04.246]against the Rutger Scarlet Knights
[00:00:05.745]and as we do each and every week, we have a chance
[00:00:07.628]to sit down with University of Nebraska Lincoln Chancellor
[00:00:09.899]Ronny Green who's brought a couple of special guests
[00:00:12.449]with us today, Steve Goddard, the interim Vice-Chancellor
[00:00:14.998]for Research and Economic Development
[00:00:16.577]and Bill Charlton, Associate Vice-Chancellor
[00:00:18.647]for Research with a specialization in defense programs.
[00:00:22.700]Chancellor, I'll begin with you.
[00:00:24.144]We want to talk about some renovations.
[00:00:26.606]An important building on campus that so many fans
[00:00:28.993]pass as they make their way up toward Memorial City.
[00:00:32.773]My understanding, construction's wrapping up.
[00:00:34.387]What can you tell us about this project?
[00:00:36.664]Well, you know Greg, we're really fortunate this fall
[00:00:39.403]because we have opened more new facilities
[00:00:42.850]and renovated facilities across the UNL campus
[00:00:45.835]than at any recent time in memory.
[00:00:48.649]As people can recollect, you know,
[00:00:50.760]the new Business building and a number of new buildings
[00:00:52.773]on the East Campus and we've now come to a close
[00:00:54.909]of the renovation of Behlen Hall
[00:00:57.502]which as you said people walk past on Stadium Drive
[00:01:01.035]as they're walking up to Memorial Stadium,
[00:01:03.389]a long time part of our campus since the mid-1960's,
[00:01:05.433]named after Mr. Behlen, Walter Behlen
[00:01:10.293]of Behlen Manufacturing, a big Nebraska well known company
[00:01:13.988]based out of Columbus, that was constructed originally
[00:01:17.835]as the research building for our Department of Physics
[00:01:21.361]that was originally housed in Brace Hall
[00:01:23.455]next door to it, connected to it.
[00:01:25.684]So when we relocated our Physics department
[00:01:27.823]to Jorgenson Hall now on campus a few years ago
[00:01:31.531]it gave us the opportunity to renovate
[00:01:33.339]both of those facilities.
[00:01:35.000]Brace Hall has been turned into an instructional building
[00:01:37.691]on our campus and Behlen Hall we've been working
[00:01:40.751]on renovating for some time to house Defense Department
[00:01:45.483]related research that our guests
[00:01:47.837]are going to tell us about today.
[00:01:49.518]So very excited to see that project coming to a close,
[00:01:51.959]to further build our research capacity
[00:01:54.713]at the university.
[00:01:56.125]Steve Goddard I'll go to you next.
[00:01:57.778]What about the challenges of trying to renovate a building
[00:01:59.745]while continuing the research,
[00:02:03.130]a lot of it goes to the Department of Defense.
[00:02:04.203]That has to be a fine line to walk.
[00:02:05.967]It's an extreme challenge.
[00:02:08.356]We've got a laser laboratory in the basement
[00:02:11.685]of Behlen Hall and the entire time we were doing
[00:02:14.634]the renovation, we were trying
[00:02:15.467]to do research in that basement.
[00:02:16.300]So you can imagine the impact.
[00:02:18.876]It's very sensitive equipment and so vibrations
[00:02:22.656]create problems, dust, we have to try and keep that down.
[00:02:24.745]It's extended out through renovation period.
[00:02:27.070]We've had to shut down or pause the projects on occasion,
[00:02:29.842]but of course that is a huge impact.
[00:02:31.985]We've got contracts with the Department of Defense,
[00:02:34.135]research grants with the National Science Foundation
[00:02:36.726]and so it has a big impact, but it's important work
[00:02:38.738]and we're trying to keep it going the entire time.
[00:02:41.582]And, obviously renovations, as the Chancellor pointed out,
[00:02:43.948]Steve, is that building's fairly old.
[00:02:46.551]You have to try to keep up with the times
[00:02:48.231]and add some new amenities to it as well, right?
[00:02:50.017]That's right, that's right Greg,
[00:02:51.945]so we've had to redesign, trying--
[00:02:53.704]Originally that building was constructed
[00:02:55.265]in what was called Brutalism from what was popular
[00:02:57.890]in the 1960s, not so much in the Midwest.
[00:03:00.611]And if you've walked by it, you've seen that,
[00:03:02.904]but that also meant we tried to make it look a little nicer,
[00:03:05.607]move some of the HVAC around, get some more space
[00:03:08.017]on the interior of the building
[00:03:10.194]so that we have better office space on the first level
[00:03:12.651]and we actually, it's a rather secure building
[00:03:14.611]so that we've moved the windows up in the first level
[00:03:17.971]so that we can have a little more privacy.
[00:03:19.673]We've got to control the light coming in
[00:03:22.070]and so there were a lot of things we had to do,
[00:03:24.137]both inside and outside, to make it suitable
[00:03:25.944]for this kind of research that we're doing.
[00:03:27.729]Fantastic, and people again can walk by it,
[00:03:29.578]probably as they head out to the stadium later today.
[00:03:31.101]Bill Charlton, I'm gonna come to you next.
[00:03:32.858]Our listeners may not, may know this,
[00:03:35.593]but may not know that Nebraska's a significant part
[00:03:37.902]of research effort for the Department of Defense
[00:03:40.197]for this country.
[00:03:42.177]Just one of few universities that is designated
[00:03:44.980]as a research center for that purpose.
[00:03:46.966]Tell us a little bit about that.
[00:03:48.324]That's right.
[00:03:49.432]University of Nebraska is affiliated with what's called
[00:03:52.304]a University Affiliated Research Center
[00:03:53.610]for the US Department of Defense called
[00:03:55.629]the National Strategic Research Institute.
[00:03:56.911]It's one of 13 institutes in the United States
[00:03:58.827]so we're a very unique club along with players
[00:04:02.450]like the University of Maryland,
[00:04:04.246]John Hopkins University, Georgia Tech.
[00:04:06.306]That institute is a very special center
[00:04:08.896]for the US Department of Defense.
[00:04:11.081]We do defense-related research at all levels
[00:04:13.561]of classification.
[00:04:15.234]The reconstruction and renovations for Behlen Hall
[00:04:18.260]were a key component for UNL and our ability
[00:04:21.487]to be able to support that research,
[00:04:23.782]including research at various levels of security
[00:04:26.672]from export controlled research
[00:04:28.640]up to more sensitive research in the--
[00:04:30.993]Behlen Hall was redesigned for a maximum degree
[00:04:34.132]of flexibility so that we could move different programs
[00:04:36.384]into different laboratory spaces
[00:04:37.913]throughout the three floors as well as the basement space
[00:04:41.547]which is where the laser laboratory is located at,
[00:04:45.057]down in the basement.
[00:04:46.388]Some of this may be probably because of the base
[00:04:48.350]up in Omaha, aright?
[00:04:49.183]That's why Nebraska's
[00:04:50.252]such a big part of this and some people
[00:04:51.787]may not realize that that's right there.
[00:04:53.468]That's right.
[00:04:54.347]NSRI's core scope of mission is combating
[00:04:58.185]weapons of mass destruction, which is a mission element
[00:05:00.240]for US Strategic Command, located at Offutt Air Force Base.
[00:05:03.044]So we have direct support to the command there
[00:05:05.328]as well as to other entities of the military,
[00:05:08.414]including the Defense Threat Reduction Agency,
[00:05:09.537]US special operations command and other components
[00:05:12.987]of the military that deal with weapons of mass destruction.
[00:05:15.112]Chancellor, it's always fun
[00:05:16.986]to kind of let our audience know, let Nebraskans know
[00:05:19.766]some of the things about this university
[00:05:21.387]that they just may not know go on on a day to day basis.
[00:05:25.145]Absolutely and you know that the highlights
[00:05:28.060]that you heard Steve and Bill talk about
[00:05:30.462]within NSRI and this new, newly renovated Behlen Hall.
[00:05:34.854]It will capture a part of the great work
[00:05:38.437]that the Physics Department that used to be housed
[00:05:40.859]in this facility is known for nationally
[00:05:44.717]and internationally.
[00:05:45.813]We have one of the top physics programs in the country here.
[00:05:48.076]Most people don't recognize that or know that.
[00:05:50.017]Then the kind of research that's contributing
[00:05:52.404]to our national defense in this facility
[00:05:55.615]is critically important and we're very proud
[00:05:57.835]of having that new capacity for the university.
[00:06:01.830]Bill, Steve, great to have both of you with us
[00:06:03.161]here today.
[00:06:04.064]Chancellor, always great to visit.
[00:06:04.936]We'll see you next week on the road in Illinois.
[00:06:06.889]That's right, go Big Red.

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Football interview - Rutgers

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