John Byrd of CRESO (Submitted photo)
The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will sponsor a talk by the Clinch River Environmental Studies Organization, or CRESO, on Thursday, March 28, at the UT Arboretum Auditorium.
The talk is scheduled from 7 to 8 p.m. March 28. The UT Arboretum is at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.
John Byrd, principal investigator with CRESO, and Fred Holtzclaw are retired high school biology teachers, a press release said. [Read more…]
Photo by Y-12 National Security Complex
The Y-12 National Security Complex says it is helping to open doors and close the gender gap in engineering fields.
In February, Y-12 hosted its eighth annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering at the site’s New Hope Center. The one-day event, held in conjunction with Engineers Week, gave young female students an opportunity to discover and explore science, technology, engineering, and math (or STEM) careers alongside Y-12 and Uranium Processing Facility Project scientists and engineers, a press release said.
More than 300 middle- and high-school students from seven area counties attended this year’s event. About 100 engineers, scientists, and other volunteers—most from Y-12, the Uranium Processing Facility Project, and the Oak Ridge chapter of Women in Nuclear—supported the event, which encouraged students to connect their math and science skills to careers in STEM fields, the press release said. [Read more…]
University of Tennessee Arboretum Society Spring Plant Sale (Submitted file photo)
The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will have its next Spring Plant Sale on April 12 and 13.
The public sale will be held on Saturday, April 13, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the UT Arboretum at 901 South Illinois Avenue (State Route 62) in Oak Ridge.
The Arboretum Society’s “Members Only” sale will be on Friday evening, April 12, from 5-7 p.m. Society memberships or membership renewals may be purchased at that time for this “early bird” shopping opportunity, a press release said. By joining UTAS on Friday night, people can enjoy the membership benefit of having the first pick of the beautiful selection of plants, some of which sell out that evening, the release said. Checks, cash and credit cards will be accepted.
This is the UT Arboretum Society’s 52nd Spring Plant Sale. [Read more…]
Bob Eby
Bob Eby, who has served on the Oak Ridge Board of Education, has been selected as vice chair of the State Board of Education. Eby will serve a two-year term.
Eby was selected by board members during the first quarterly meeting of 2019, a press release said. During that meeting, members of the State Board of Education re-elected Lillian Hartgrove as board chair.
Eby first joined the State Board of Education in April 2018 following his appointment to the board by Governor Bill Haslam in February. He brings with him a 43-year career, including 16 years of experience on the Oak Ridge Board of Education, where he has served as chairman and vice chairman, the press release said.
While serving on the Oak Ridge Board of Education, Eby spearheaded several major activities for the Oak Ridge Schools, most notably, championing the recent school’s strategic plan, Oak Ridge 2020, which has become a model for school systems in the state, the press release said.
“In the time he has served on our board, Bob has demonstrated a keen interest in the purpose of this board and has been able to devote a great amount of time as a volunteer to understand the challenges and opportunities we have to positively impact the quality of education provided to the students of the great state of Tennessee,” Gordon Ferguson, the previous vice chair of the state school board, said in nominating Eby to become vice chair. [Read more…]
Winning first place in the 2019 Tennessee Science Bowl is Oak Ridge High School, pictured left to right with their trophy, David Joy, Henry Shen, George Wang, Steven Qu, and Melody Guo. Their coach is Sharon Thomas. (Submitted photo)
Team heads to National Science Bowl after third straight state win
After months of training, studying, and improving their competition skills, 55 high school teams from across the state of Tennessee gathered recently to test their knowledge in broad science disciplines including chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, and energy.
Oak Ridge High School placed first in the annual competition and received an all-expenses-paid trip to the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C., held April 25-29, as well as a $1,000 cash prize and a first-place trophy.
The Tennessee Science Bowl is the nation’s third-largest regional competition, a press release said. Held at Pellissippi State Community College’s Blount County Campus, the regional bowl prepares students to compete nationally with other exceptional students from schools across the country. [Read more…]
Phil Cox
Phil Cox, principal of Jefferson Middle School, has been named principal of the year, Oak Ridge Schools said.
Cox began his career in education in 1986 as a graduate coach at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Later in 1986, and for the next five years, he served as head basketball coach and coordinator of athletic funds at Lincoln Memorial University, a press release said.
After leaving LMU, Cox taught a year at the Anderson County Alternative Learning Center. In 1992, he began his teaching/coaching career at Norris Middle School and, in 2003, was named assistant principal and athletic director. In 2005, he was selected principal at Lake City Elementary. [Read more…]
The cover of Kai-Fu Lee’s book, “AI Superpowers.” (Submitted)
Kai-Fu Lee—a world-leading artificial intelligence expert, venture capitalist, writer, and former president of Google China—is planning a visit to Oak Ridge on May 6, a press release said.
Lee, a 1979 Oak Ridge High School graduate, will visit his former schools, St. Mary’s Catholic School and Oak Ridge Schools, meeting with students and teachers during the day, the press release said.
The public is invited to an evening ceremony at Pollard Auditorium including a reception beginning at 5:30 p.m. and Lee’s talk at 6:30. This community event will be hosted by the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation, UT-Battelle, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and Friends of ORNL. Lee will be available to sign his most recent best-selling book, “AI Super-Powers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order.” Copies of the book will be available for purchase, the press release said. [Read more…]
Robert Hatcher
Could we have a major earthquake in East Tennessee? Do we live in an active seismic zone?
These and other questions will be addressed by Robert Hatcher, University of Tennessee distinguished scientist emeritus, in a lecture, “Living with East Tennessee Geology and Earthquakes,” in Oak Ridge in April.
The lecture is scheduled from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in the University of Tennessee Arboretum Auditorium at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.
Hatcher was a faculty member for 32 years in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Science Alliance Center of Excellence at the University of Tennessee, a press release said. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Vanderbilt University and his doctorate at the University of Tennessee. [Read more…]
Ralph Monday
Roane State Community College English Professor Ralph Monday, who has had hundreds of his poems published in more than 100 journals, will hold a poetry reading on March 13 on the college’s Oak Ridge campus at 701 Briarcliff Avenue.
The event will be held at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13, in the City Room of the Coffey-McNally Building. The public is invited, a press release said.
Monday is originally from Clairfield, Tennessee, a small Appalachian town on the Kentucky border.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee, and obtained his doctorate from Northcentral University, the press release said.
Among his published works: a chapbook, “All American Girls and Other Poems,” was published in July 2014, and Aldrich Press published his book, “Empty Houses and American Renditions,” in May 2015. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge High School Masquers, the school’s drama program, will present “Annie,” the classic musical, for four performances in March 2019—March 1, March 2, and March 3—at the Oak Ridge Performing Arts Center at Oak Ridge High School. (Submitted photo)
Oak Ridge High School Masquers, the school’s drama program, will present “Annie,” the classic musical, for four performances this weekend.
Here are the scheduled performances at the Oak Ridge Performing Arts Center at Oak Ridge High School:
Advanced tickets are $8, and they are available at the ORHS office and The Ferrell Shop. At the door, tickets will be $9 for students and $10 for adults. [Read more…]
Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge
The Oak Ridge Public Works Department is teaming up with students from the University of Tennessee to explore alternative designs for the intersection at Pennsylvania and North Tulane avenues.
Some residents refer to the five-way intersection near Oak Ridge High School as “malfunction junction.”
The effort to explore alternative designs for the intersection is part of a senior project for the group of students from UT’s College of Civil and Environmental Engineering, a press release said. To help gather input from the community, the students will host an interactive open forum on Monday, March 4. The forum will be held in the Oak Ridge Public Library’s auditorium from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. [Read more…]
Submitted
Discover the variety of internships and research participation programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by participating in the Laboratory Internship Virtual Event, or LIVE, career fair on Wednesday, February 20, from noon to 3 p.m.
During the LIVE virtual career fair, participants will connect with ORNL recruiters and staff, talk to ORNL’s staff scientists about their research and how they are solving some of the world’s most compelling challenges, and learn more about the different directorates that make up ORNL, the largest U.S. Department of Energy open science laboratory, a press release said.
Register now or learn more about this LIVE virtual career fair: https://orau.6connex.com/event/LIVE/ORNL19Q1/login. [Read more…]
