UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Computational Nuclear Engineering Brian Wirth, right, receives a plaque from U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, center, honoring him as an Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award recipient. John Kotek, acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, is at left. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)
Nuclear energy expert Brian Wirth, a joint appointee at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz at a Washington, D.C., ceremony Thursday night.
Wirth serves as the Governor’s Chair for Computational Nuclear Engineering, studying aspects of nuclear environments and materials related to nuclear energy.
That expertise led to his honor, one of nine the DOE bestowed during the evening.
“The ceremony was really nice,” said Wirth. “I was thrilled that College of Engineering Dean Wayne Davis, department head Wes Hines, and Steve Zinkle attended, along with Alan Icenhour from ORNL.”
The award was established in 1959, and it is given by the DOE in recognition of research supporting science, energy, or national security.
Named for Ernest Orlando Lawrence, a 1939 Nobel laureate and inventor of the cyclotron—an accelerator of subatomic particles—it is considered the highest achievement that a DOE midcareer researcher can receive.
When notified in May that he’d be receiving the honor, Wirth said the award was personally satisfying and an acknowledgement of the work he, UT, and ORNL are doing.
Along with the medal they were bestowed with at the ceremony, Wirth and the other eight honorees received a $20,000 honorarium.
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