From the City of Oak Ridge
The idea of a pedestrian bridge at Melton Lake Park has been talked about for years.
Now, a senior design team comprised of University of Tennessee civil and environmental engineering students wants to know what you think about it. This Volunteer Design Group will be hosting a public forum to further discuss the project at 5 p.m. this Friday, November 18. It’s their second forum.
[Read more…]
The Nature Book Trail at the University of Tennessee Arboretum features “Bugs on the Job,” a book by author Nancy Kelly Allen and illustrator Martyna Nejman.
The Nature Book Trail is about half a mile in length. It begins near the parking lot by the UT Arboretum Visitors Center at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.
“It is an easy trail for children and adults to hike, with two benches to rest on along the way; however, it is non-accessible for people with disabilities,” the press release said. “The 14 beautiful trail signs feature Ian Sect, a roving reporter who interviews 10 different insects to learn about their roles in nature as decomposers, pollinators, or colonizers.”
[Read more…]
Wade Creswell, who was elected Roane County executive this year, will talk to the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge on Tuesday.
Creswell’s presentation is scheduled to start at noon Tuesday, November 15, in person at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Church Social Hall. It will also be available on Zoom. A link for Zoom access will be distributed later.
It’s a Lunch with the League hosted by the League of Women Voters.
[Read more…]There will be greenway and park closures in November and December for hunts in the Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area.
The big game quota hunts will be held by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy and the City of Oak Ridge.
“For everyone’s safety, only hunters possessing a valid Oak Ridge WMA quota permit are allowed on the WMA during scheduled quota hunts,” a press release said.
[Read more…]
The annual Community Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, December 1, in Alvin K. Bissell Park.
The tree lighting ceremony, sponsored by the Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department, is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. December 1.
The tree, a Norway spruce that was presented to the city by the Woman’s Club, has become part of a growing community tradition, a press release said.
[Read more…]
Workers have demolished a nuclear reactor that was built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1950s for studies that were part of the federal aircraft nuclear propulsion program.
It’s the first demolition of a reactor in the ORNL central campus area. The demolition was reported to be completed ahead of schedule.
The Bulk Shielding Reactor, also known as Building 3010, was built in the 1950s for radiation shielding studies as part of the federal aircraft nuclear propulsion program. It included a 27-foot-deep reactor pool filled with water to shield the radioactive components contained in the pool, according to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management. Its mission changed to a general-purpose research reactor in 1963, and it was shut down permanently in 1991.
The reactor was demolished by cleanup contractor UCOR, working for DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM).
[Read more…]The annual free community Thanksgiving dinner is in Oak Ridge on Thursday, November 24.
“Everyone should have someone to give thanks with on Thanksgiving!” a press release said. “The grassroots annual tradition continues, and this year we are back to in-house dining!”
Everyone is invited, the press release said.
The dinner is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, November 24, at the Historic Grove Theater at 123 Randolph Road in Oak Ridge. No RSVP is required, the press release said.
[Read more…]OAK RIDGE, Tenn.— To honor the 30th anniversary of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, the organization announced the winners of its inaugural Future of Science Awards.
These prestigious awards recognize excellence performed by ORISE participants in the areas of scientific achievement, professional growth, project contributions and leadership in three categories: undergraduate and post-baccalaureate, graduate student and post-master’s, and postdoctoral. Each winner will receive $1,000 cash and recognition from ORISE.
ORISE Director Jim Vosburg presented the 2022 ORISE Future of Science Awards during a virtual ceremony to the following ORISE participant winners:
Brooke Vollmer – Undergraduate Student and Post-Baccalaureate Award
Brooke Vollmer is an ORISE fellow in the Research Branch at the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL), which is a division within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), located in Pittsburgh. Vollmer received her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in Spring 2020. Throughout her education, she gained her research experience at NIOSH/NPPTL, first as a summer intern (2019) and regular fellow (2020-2021) prior to beginning her ORISE journey (2021-present) with her mentor, Michael Bergman. Vollmer has
contributed to an abundance of research projects within her division and by representing NIOSH/NPPTL in research collaborations with outside organizations. She has focused her efforts on research that looks into understanding the factors that affect respirator performance, such as fit and filtration efficiency. This research helps to protect workers worldwide who rely on respirators to prevent occupational disease and illness.
Geneva Gray – Graduate Student and Post-Master’s Award
Geneva Gray is a doctoral candidate in Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University and a current ORISE participant with her mentor, Tanya Spero, at the Environmental Protection Agency. She studies how extreme precipitation events change under future warming conditions using stakeholder-driven case studies and extreme value analysis. Geneva holds two Bachelor of Science degrees in Meteorology and Environmental Sciences and a master’s degree in Atmospheric Science, where she studied quantitative methods on climate model ensemble selection. She is a former U.S. Geological Survey Global Change Fellow and Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network Fellow. Geneva started her career in 2012 as an environmental meteorologist at the North Carolina State Climate Office where she learned how to build impact-driven research projects and how to communicate those results to the general public. Her career goal is to lead actionable climate science for a resilient future.
Ryan Corey – Postdoctoral Award
Ryan Corey is an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellow conducting research with Professor Andrew Singer in the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree from Princeton University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all in electrical engineering. A hearing aid user since he was a teenager, Corey’s research focuses on signal processing strategies to help people hear better in noisy environments. In particular, he is developing systems that allow multiple sensors and audio devices to work together to improve performance in adverse environments. Since 2017, he has mentored a team of engineering, design and business students in the Illinois Augmented Listening Laboratory, which explores applications of large-scale microphone arrays and acoustic sensor networks. Corey has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant, the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence for Accessibility Award, and the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. He was also awarded the Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics 2019 Best Student Paper Award and the 179th Acoustical Society of America Meeting Best Student Paper Award.
For more information, and to watch for information regarding next year’s Future of Science Awards in spring 2023, visit the ORISE website: https://orise.orau.gov/
About ORISE
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is a U.S. Department of Energy asset that is dedicated to enabling critical scientific, research, and health initiatives of the department and its laboratory system by providing world-class expertise in STEM workforce development, scientific and technical reviews, and the evaluation of radiation exposure and environmental contamination. ORISE is managed by ORAU, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and federal contractor, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science
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Four Oak Ridge and Tennessee organizations are having a forum today (Tuesday, November 1) about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in 1973.
This summer, almost 50 years later, Roe was overturned by the court in a 5-4 vote.
“The over-turn of Roe v. Wade destroyed 50 years of legal precedents—and along with the trigger ban law of the state of Tennessee—placed the health, lives, livelihood, and families of Tennessee women in serious jeopardy,” a press release said. “The physicians and health care providers who have met the needs of these women for decades could now face felony charges. No exceptions are allowed under the law.”
The forum today will feature five female experts, including professors of nursing and medicine, a criminal defense attorney and nonprofit founder, a state senator, and a family nurse practitioner, the press release said.
They will “continue the conversation on the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the trigger ban in Tennessee,” the press release said.
The five women are:
[Read more…]
The 2022 Street Painting Festival this month raised more than $20,000 to help fund scholarships for Roane State Community College students in Anderson County.
The annual festival was hosted by the Noon Rotary Club of Oak Ridge in Historic Jackson Square. The festival blends art, history, and community for a fun event in support of local students, a press release said. More than $300,000 in scholarships issued by the nonprofit Roane State Foundation have been provided since the start of the festival in 1999.
Festival sponsors make a tax-exempt donation to the Foundation, with levels ranging from $5,000 for Platinum down to $100 for Individual. Sponsors’ names are assigned to sidewalk squares upon which the artists paint pictures with chalk.
[Read more…]
Pictured above from left to right are Bow Tie recipients or representatives Bill Capshaw (2019), Cande Seay (2015), Teresa Myrick (Tim Myrick, 2014), Pat Postma (2022), Ray Smith (2013), Pat Row (Tom Row, 2016), Jim Dodson (2021), Tom Beehan (2020), and Bear Stephenson (2016). Not pictured is Louise Mixon, who received the award in 2018. (Submitted photo)
ADFAC (Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties Inc.) is selling tickets to the upcoming Bill Wilcox Bow Tie Event to be held in Oak Ridge on November 5.
This year’s event, “Lady With a Legacy,” will honor community volunteer Pat Postma as the 10th Bill Wilcox Bow Tie Awardee, a press release said.
The Bow Tie Event is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. November 5 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
ASAP of Anderson is partnering with the City of Rocky Top to present free trunk-or-treating and a showing of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” on Friday, October 28.
It’s scheduled from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on October 28 at Rocky Top’s George Templin Field, a press release said.
“Fun activities and free resources will be available for the whole family!” the release said.
The free event will include food and costume contests, the press release said.
[Read more…]