Indiana University

Skip to:

  1. Search
  2. Breadcrumb Navigation
  3. Content
  4. Browse by Topic
  5. Services & Resources
  6. Additional Resources
  7. Multimedia News

Media Contacts

Doug Wasitis
Director of Federal Relations
dwasitis@indiana.edu
202-434-8012

Sherry Knighton Schwandt
Office of the Vice Provost for Research
sks@indiana.edu
812-856-0504

Last modified: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Raymond L. Orbach, DOE Under Secretary for Science, to visit IU April 24-25

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Raymond L. Orbach, the U.S. Department of Energy's Under Secretary for Science, will pay a two-day visit to Indiana University, April 24 and 25.

Orbach will visit IU Cyclotron and the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, where the Low Energy Neutron Source (LENS) program recently achieved a major milestone in reaching its target ultimate beam energy of 13MeV. LENS is the first university-based cold neutron source and is developing collaborative projects with the DOE-funded Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Orbach also will tour IU's new state-of-the-art science facility, Simon Hall, as well as Swain Hall where many of the DOE projects take place. He will meet with faculty and students and attend presentations on recent developments in IU's science programs. IU will host a lunch for invited faculty, students and industry leaders during which Orbach will present brief remarks.

"It is indeed an honor and a privilege to have Under Secretary Orbach visit our institution," said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. "As a federal administrator and a former university chancellor, Orbach is especially informed regarding the critical role that federal funding plays in the advancement of the scientific knowledge that drives our country's industry and economic engine, and the role that research universities in this country play in the production of scientific knowledge. We look forward to sharing some of Indiana University's recent scientific achievements with the Under Secretary and to learning more about his views on the future of energy-related research in the United States."

Nominated by President Bush, Orbach was sworn in by Secretary Samuel W. Bodman as the Department of Energy's first Under Secretary for Science on June 1, 2006. As Under Secretary for Science, Orbach serves as the secretary's advisor on science policy as well as on the scientific aspects of all DOE activities, from basic research to nuclear energy to the environmental clean-up of Cold War legacy sites to defense programs.

Orbach, who formerly served as Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, is responsible for planning, coordinating and overseeing the Energy Department's research and development programs and its 17 national laboratories, as well as the department's scientific and engineering education activities. The DOE is the third largest federal sponsor of basic research in the United States, the primary supporter of the physical sciences in the nation, and of researchers at more than 300 colleges and universities nationwide, including Indiana University.

The DOE funds a number of major IU research programs and projects, including 10 projects under its Basic Energy Sciences and High Energy Physics program, four projects under its Advanced Scientific Computing Research program and one under its Biological and Environmental Research program.

A full list of funded programs is online at https://www.science.doe.gov/SC_Funding/in/in-IU.Bloomington.htm.