Thomas Zacharia
Thomas Zacharia, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will give a community lecture on Thursday. It’s the 21st season of the Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series.
Besides being ORNL director, Zacharia is also president and chief executive officer of UT-Battelle LLC, which operates ORNL for the U. S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
On Thursday, Zacharia will talk about the scientific agenda at ORNL in a presentation titled “Science and the State of the Lab,” a press release said. The event is co-sponsored by Friends of ORNL (FORNL) and the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation (ORPSEF). It is free of charge, and it will be held at the Pollard Technology Conference Center at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge. A reception will be held in the auditorium lobby starting at 5:30 p.m. (snacks will be served), and the lecture starts at 6 p.m. in the auditorium, the press release said.
“The talk will be of interest to students and the general public,” the press release said.
Zacharia became director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, on July 1, 2017.
“He is responsible for a diverse portfolio of science and energy research and development that ranges from fundamental research in physics, biology, and chemistry to clean energy, national security, and energy generation, distribution, and end use,” the press release said. His operating responsibilities include the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, the Spallation Neutron Source, the High Flux Isotope Reactor, the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, and a complex array of research facilities and construction projects. He is responsible for an annual budget exceeding $1.5 billion.
Zacharia joined ORNL in 1987 as a postdoctoral researcher. During his career at ORNL, his numerous managerial and scientific responsibilities have included serving as leader of the Materials Modeling and Simulation Group, director of the Computer Science and Mathematics Division, deputy associate laboratory director for high performance computing, and associate laboratory director for the then-new Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate. Prior to becoming lab director, he served as the deputy for science and technology, overseeing the laboratory’s research and development programs.
Zacharia has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India, a master’s degree in materials science from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, and a doctorate in engineering science from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. He holds two U.S. patents and is author or co-author of more than 100 publications on high-performance computing for manufacturing processes, the press release said. He was named a fellow of the American Welding Society in 2005, elected a corresponding member of the International Academy of Astronautics in 2014, and named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2015.
“Please join us for this entertaining and instructive presentation,” the press release said.
FORNL is an organization formed to facilitate and maintain a beneficial association of those who have an interest in ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), the release said. 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. More information can be found on the FORNL website at http://www.fornl.info.
The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation was formed to enhance, promote, and support the public schools of Oak Ridge, their students, and their mission, the press release said. Since 2000, the Foundation has coordinated efforts to provide teachers in classrooms from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade with resources over and above those funded with tax dollars by financially supporting programs that enrich student learning, encourage professional development, enhance innovative technological and instructional programs, and provide state of the art facilities to set the standard of excellence in public education, the press release said. More information can be found at http://www.orpsef.org.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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