The U.S. Department of energy, using stimulus money is bringing new jobs to a UGA research facility
Not only is the stimulus package working. Its investing in our future...
The grant for seven new and five continuing research projects will create 12 new full-time jobs and allow approximately 16 University of Georgia research professionals and technicians to retain their full-time positions at a facility that repeatedly has downsized in recent years because of funding cuts.
For more than 50 years, the lab has pursued basic and applied research at multiple levels of ecological organization, from atoms to ecosystems at Savannah River Site. SREL also provides graduate and undergraduate research training and service to the community through environmental outreach. SREL has played an essential role in the government's stewardship and management of Savannah River Site, researching all ecological aspects of site operations.
During the past four to five years, as the research priorities of the DOE changed and funding to UGA decreased, the number of employees at the lab decreased from a peak of 200 in 2004-2005 to 50 this year -- a 70 percent decline. The funding will allow SREL to begin to rebuild research programs.
"Importantly, the federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act means SREL can hire new research professionals who will expand our capability to bring in new sources of external funding, replacing the stimulus funding once it ends," said Carl Bergmann, an SREL co-director and the grant's principal investigator. "We're also pleased that SREL's former employees will be eligible for the new jobs that this grant will provide."
SREL co-director Ken McLeod said, "SREL's new research projects will further enable DOE to understand and address site impacts on all levels, while also contributing to the greater scientific community."
Most of the projects will provide important knowledge about the behavior of environmental contaminants from human activity, especially in aquatic environments such as the rivers, streams and ponds of the Savannah River Site, he explained. "This research increases our knowledge of the basic aspects of these systems, which in turn helps the development of solutions to important environmental problems."
Not only are we getting the economy back to growth faster than without a stimulus package, we are investing in our future as well. Don't believe the deficit fixation from people oppossed to the stimulus.
