Oak Ridge Today

UT releases policy brief on selling TVA

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KNOXVILLE—The Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville has released a policy brief summarizing factors the federal government should consider while making its decision of whether or not to privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority.

In his proposed fiscal year 2014 budget, President Barack Obama suggested the federal government consider selling TVA. There are several factors that may affect the federal government’s final decision on the matter, including TVA’s ability to be self-sufficient and the absence of federal money in its programs since 1999. Mary English, Baker Center Fellow for Energy and Environmental Policy, summarizes these factors in the brief, titled “Should the Federal Government Sell TVA?”

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UT names advanced manufacturing expert as Governor’s Chair with ORNL

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Sudarsanam Suresh Babu

Sudarsanam Suresh Babu

Sudarsanam Suresh Babu, an authority in the production, design, and performance of transforming materials into parts, has been named the 11th University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair.

Babu will serve as Governor’s Chair for Advanced Manufacturing. He begins on July 1.

Babu, a professor in the Welding Engineering Program in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University, directed a National Science Foundation Industry and University Cooperative Research center focused on materials joining for energy applications. [Read more…]

UT named a ‘Best Value’ public college by Princeton Review

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KNOXVILLE—The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, consistently delivers an affordable, high quality education and offers plenty of opportunities to engage its students, according to the Princeton Review’s 2013 Best Value survey.

UT was ranked today among the top 75 public colleges and universities in the Princeton Review’s “Best Value Colleges for 2013” edition. The ranking compares 30 data points of public and private schools that include cost, financial aid, and other student and academic metrics. The top colleges and universities were selected from more than 650 institutions.

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UT study predicts extreme climate in eastern United States

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From extreme drought to super storms, many wonder what the future holds for the climate of the eastern United States. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville does away with the guessing.

Results show the region will be hotter and wetter.

Joshua Fu, a civil and environmental engineering professor, and Yang Gao, a graduate research assistant, developed precise scales of cities that act as a climate crystal ball, seeing high-resolution climate changes almost 50 years into the future.

The study found that heat waves will become more severe in most regions of the eastern United States and that both the Northeast and Southeast will see a drastic increase in precipitation.

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Second top school administrator leaving Oak Ridge at end of year

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She was Oak Ridge preschool principal for 12 years and assistant interim superintendent for eight months, and now Marian Phillips has been offered a new job at the University of Tennessee.

She will start at UT on Jan. 7. She will be leaving Oak Ridge shortly after Superintendent Tom Bailey, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Phillips became assistant interim superintendent after Ken Green left in May.

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New leader named to UT-ORNL Supercomputer Center

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Tony Mezzacappa

Tony Mezzacappa

Tony Mezzacappa, a leader in the field of astrophysics and supernova science, has been named director of the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Mezzacappa is a world leader in computational astrophysics and a pioneer in the field of supernova science. He is a UT-Battelle Corporate Fellow and group leader for theoretical physics in the Physics Division at ORNL.

He is also a joint professor in the UT Department of Physics and Astronomy. With this new position, Mezzacappa will become the department’s Newton W. and Wilma C. Thomas Endowed Chair in Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics.

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Oak Ridge student receives UT scholarship in math contest

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James Andress of Oak Ridge High School was one of 10 students who won a $4,000 annual scholarship to the University of Tennessee in an Oct. 25 math contest.

The UT-Pro2Serve Math Contest featured almost 600 students from 47 high schools.

Other scholarship winners included three students from Farragut High School in Knoxville—Melissa Yu, Alexander Selwitz, and Hyungdon Joo—and students in Brentwood, Chattanooga, Clarksville, Hendersonville, and Memphis.

The press release said the contest had two parts. All participants took a multiple-choice test on algebra and geometry called the Fundamental Exams of Remarkable Mathematical Ability and Talent (FERMAT I).

The five top scorers received a plaque. Andress was one of the top scorers. Lam Tran of Farragut High School was also a winner.

Students with the top 50 scores on the FERMAT I moved on to the FERMAT II, which included eight essay questions requiring creative and original thinking. All exams were hand-graded by faculty members from UT’s Department of Mathematics.

The second part of the contest was the Math Bowl, a double-elimination team competition. Sixty-four high school teams competed head-to-head to be the fastest to answer 10 math questions correctly, the press release said.

The contest was presented by the UT College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Mathematics and UT alumnus Barry Goss and his technical and engineering company Professional Project Services Inc., more commonly known as Pro2Serve.