Thomas Zacharia (Photo courtesy D. Ray Smith)
Submitted
The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club welcomed Thomas Zacharia, director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to its August 9 breakfast meeting. Zacharia became director of ORNL on July 1, 2017, after a long and successful career with ORNL beginning in 1987 as a postdoctoral researcher and culminating in his recent appointment as director.
His professional career at ORNL spans many fields with a special focus in materials research and computational sciences. In his comments to the club, he outlined his long-term expectations for ORNL and its critical role in supporting U.S. Department of Energy missions to advance science and technology in such areas as high-performance computing, advanced materials, nuclear power, and national security.
In addition, Thomas stated he expects ORNL will continue to expand its role in transferring ORNL technologies to industry in the local area and across the nation. ORNL scientific discoveries are expected to continue to help make our economy more competitive in world markets.
After a most informative presentation, Zacharia answered several questions and left his audience with a much better understanding of his perspective on the future of ORNL, which looks grand indeed. He spoke of the potential for adding a second target to the Spallation Neutron Source and to the progress being made on the installation of the next supercomputer, Summit, which is expected to again take ORNL to the world-wide leadership position in supercomputers.
“Listening to Thomas makes one proud to be an Oak Ridger and know that the largest and most diverse National Laboratory in the Department of Energy is located here, with all the benefits associated with the scientific discoveries in such wide-ranging areas from nuclear medicine to space travel!” a press release said. “Only in Oak Ridge can a Rotary Club expect to listen and learn about scientific discoveries that even include new elements being discovered and named for our state!”
This press release and photo were submitted by D. Ray Smith.
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