SVI Radio Interview: Chad Baldwin, University of Wyoming
Chad Baldwin, AVP of Marketing and Communications for the University of Wyoming, called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Wednesday, July 16 with his monthly report. Baldwin touched on a researcher grant to protect nuclear reactors from seismic activity, update on the remodel for War Memorial Stadium, new dining canter and residence halls, and the Geology Journal marking 60 years.
A full transcript of the interview is available below.
(0:00) Time to touch base with Chad Baldwin for his monthly report from the University of Wyoming. (0:05) Chad, good morning. How are you today? (0:09) Good morning, Duke.
Doing great. (0:10) I appreciate your time as always. Thank you so much.
(0:13) And a number of topics to jump into here this morning. (0:16) First off, right out of the gate, here in Lincoln County, (0:19) anytime we see the word nuclear in a headline, it kind of perks our ears, of course. (0:23) And it sounds like a researcher at the university has received a grant to (0:26) help protect nuclear reactors from seismic activity.
Tell us all about this. (0:32) You bet, Duke. Yeah, you know, we’ve talked before here on your program about (0:38) all the attention that now the university is paying to the nuclear industry in the state, (0:43) which is reviving and growing.
Dr. Ankit Sahena is in our Department of Mechanical Engineering, (0:52) and he’s received funding for his project. It was going to look about how you can protect (0:56) nuclear power plants from seismic events. And this is where it gets a little tricky, (1:02) Duke, because I’ll do my best to explain it.
But he’s using a technology called particle dampers, (1:09) which are vibration damping technology that consists of like a cavity with trapped particles. (1:15) And then when you get seismic activity, these trapped particles collide with each other and (1:21) they dissipate the vibrational energy of seismic stuff. Seems pretty crazy, but that’s what he’s (1:28) doing.
And now this, I should point out that this is not going to be technology used in the (1:35) TerraPower project, which is already well underway. But this is looking at the future (1:40) of an important energy sector to our country and our state to make it safer and protect it more (1:46) from earthquakes. Pretty cool that that’s happening here.
And just one of many different (1:51) sorts of nuclear related projects happening at UW. It was a pretty good description, Chad. If (1:55) you’re not careful, the engineering department will pick you up, put you on their staff, man.
(2:03) But no, that’s fantastic. And it really does just go to show again, as you mentioned, (2:08) we’ve talked about before, but it goes to show again, the university’s commitment to that (2:11) industry and not just specifically to the TerraPower facility in Kemmerer, but the (2:17) growing industry statewide and starting to kind of lead the nation in this type of research when (2:22) it comes to nuclear technology. Absolutely, Duke, and it’s important and our administration in (2:27) Washington, D.C. has made it a priority.
Really, this is all kind of taken on, quite honestly, (2:32) a bipartisan tone really, where I noticed like the governor of New York, for example, (2:37) announcing they’re going to have a new nuclear power plant in that state. And so this is a (2:41) national sort of thing, and we want to be at the cutting edge of it for our state and our country. (2:46) So that’s what this is all about.
Chad Baldwin from the University of Wyoming joining us this (2:50) morning on the Weekday Wake Up. Chad, of course, you’re getting ready to welcome students back in (2:56) a month and a half or so back to Laramie for the fall semester. And it sounds like a new dining (3:02) center and residence halls have come quite a long way in their construction process.
(3:08) Duke, they’re about done. This is the biggest construction project in the university’s (3:13) history, Duke, like approaching $400 million. And ultimately, it’s going to create about a thousand, (3:19) almost a thousand new beds for our residential students and then this new dining center.
(3:27) And they’re putting the furniture in right now, and this North Hall, which will open this fall, (3:31) and the South Hall will open in December. But we’ve gotten in to take a look at it. It’s really (3:37) spectacular.
And the rooms are nice. The common spaces are especially impressive. And looking (3:44) forward for our new class of students being able to, you know, kick these things off for us this (3:52) fall.
Of course, as you use the word kick things off for the fall, then that, of course, means (3:58) football season coming right up. Renovations at War Memorial Stadium have been going on for a couple (4:03) of years. And it looks like the media is getting an early look at the refurbished War Memorial (4:09) Stadium ahead of the season.
Yeah, I got to go on the tour here about a week and a half ago, (4:15) Duke, where we have this new seating area and a new kind of venue for people during and before (4:23) and after the games to hang out and eat and drink and socialize. We call them Loge Seating, (4:30) L-O-G-E. It’s outdoor seating, but it’s, I guess you could say it’s kind of a cross between what (4:35) our Wildcatter Suites are which are enclosed and these suites are open air.
And so there we have (4:44) 260 seats that are, all but 50 of them are already spoken for, by the way, where it’s (4:51) prime viewing of the stadium from the west side. And then right behind that, they’ve carved out a (4:57) whole big section where they’re going to have a food and drink area and some other sort of private (5:03) spots. So they’ve created a whole new area within our stadium for people to enjoy a game day and (5:10) then have events not on game days.
So real spectacular. It’s an $85 million project, (5:17) Duke, that’s happened. And then the other part of it, of course, is a new press box, (5:22) which is up a little higher, which we did not get to get in and see yet, but really exciting.
(5:30) Athletics are very competitive and we can be proud to be here that we have a facility, (5:34) a really unique setting to watch our football program and support it and then have very modern (5:43) stadium experience. (5:44) Speaking with Chad Baldwin this morning in his monthly report from the University of Wyoming. (5:49) Well, Chad, let’s wrap it up this morning talking about the Geology Journal marking (5:53) 60 years with the Denver Dinosaur Discovery article.
Tell us what this story is about. (5:59) Yeah, we have a real proud heritage at UW of a really strong geology program. (6:05) Wyoming is a mecca for geologists around the country.
And we have an actual scientific (6:10) journal that’s now 60 years old, where people in the Rocky Mountain region called Rocky Mountain (6:15) Geology and people publish things about different geological findings. And the new one comes from (6:22) down south of the border there in Denver, where they have a museum there, their Denver Museum of (6:29) Nature and Science. And they were drilling down in their parking lot for something to check on (6:35) hydrothermal energy prospects.
And in this coring sample, they found a 67.5 million year old (6:43) dinosaur fossil, which is pretty crazy. It’s like the deepest they’ve ever found in the Denver area. (6:52) And so anyway, it’s big, big national news.
If you saw it was on CNN, it was on NBC News, (6:57) it was on all kinds of stuff about, look, the dinosaur museum found a dinosaur fossil in their (7:02) parking lot. Well, that was published in the University of Wyoming Geology Journal, which is (7:08) kind of cool. Kind of just shows again where we make some national headlines from time to time, (7:14) Duke, and that’s fun.
Absolutely, absolutely. Always something happening at the University (7:19) of Wyoming. That’s Chad Baldwin with the report this morning.
Chad, anything we missed you’d like (7:22) to mention today? Hey, Duke, real quick, I’m talking to you not from Laramie today, I’m calling from (7:29) the Black Hills up near the South Dakota border. Our board of trustees is meeting up here. (7:35) They tried to get out around the state in the summertime.
And because we’re not the University (7:39) of Laramie, we’re the University of Wyoming. And so it’s just sort of interesting. I’ll be in your (7:46) neck of the woods here.
Recently, last month, we talked about the Little Snake River Basin down in (7:51) South Central Wyoming. It’s just finding my job to get around the state. And I’m told we’re going (7:56) to be, the trustees will be in Western Wyoming next summer.
So looking forward to that. All (8:01) right. We hope to see you then when that happens.
Thank you so much. That’s Chad Baldwin this (8:05) morning and his monthly report from the University of Wyoming. It’s all part of the weekday wake up (8:09) on the SBI radio network.