ORNL director gives lab update during Tuesday lecture

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason will give an update on the lab during a Tuesday lecture at the American Museum of Science and Energy.

It’s the 15th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series, and the talk is sponsored by Friends of ORNL.

There will be a 6 p.m. reception on Tuesday, and the lecture starts at 6:30 p.m.

“This talk should be of interest to the general public, and high school science students and teachers are especially invited,” a press release said.

AMSE is located at 300 S. Tulane Ave. in Oak Ridge.

Here is more information from the press release:

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has acquired an extraordinary suite of capabilities for achieving its mission of scientific discovery and innovation for clean energy and global security. ORNL’s scientific agenda also includes a strong focus on maximizing the Laboratory’s impact through technology transfer and through graduate research and education. ORNL’s plans for executing this scientific agenda are presented.

Thom Mason is originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He majored in physics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he met his wife, Jennifer McGillivray, and received his Ph.D. from McMaster University in Toronto.

Thom joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1998 to participate in the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) project. He was named Associate Laboratory Director for the SNS in 2001, leading this $1.4 billion project to completion on time, on budget, and on scope with an outstanding safety record. In 2006 with the SNS in operation, Thom was named Associate Laboratory Director for Neutron Sciences. In July 2007 he became director of ORNL and president and CEO of UT-Battelle, LLC.

Thom has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers in the open scientific literature. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. In 2005, he received the Postma Young Professional Award from the East Tennessee Economic Council, and in 2008 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award for the Sciences from McMaster University.

Thom and Jennifer live in Oak Ridge with their two sons, William and Simon. Thom serves as Chair of the Oak Ridge Public Schools Foundation, which helped to raise $55 million for the renovation of Oak Ridge High School. He also chairs the Board of Directors of Innovation Valley Inc. and is a member of the ETEC Board of Directors.

The Friends of ORNL (FORNL) is an organization formed to facilitate and maintain a beneficial association of those who have an interest in ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). FORNL provides a mechanism for members to keep in touch with co-workers, retirees, and current ORNL activities by providing the community at large with presentations and events.