Oak Ridge Today

Van Berkel receives top Science, Technology honor at UT-Battelle Awards Night

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Gary J. Van Berkel

Gary J. Van Berkel

Gary J. Van Berkel of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Chemical Sciences Division has earned the ORNL Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology.

Van Berkel was honored Friday night during the annual Awards Night event hosted by UT-Battelle, the management and operating contractor of ORNL. The award recognizes Van Berkel’s sustained leadership and innovation in the development of disruptive sampling systems for mass spectrometry, resulting in multiple commercial licenses and new product offerings. He was earlier named ORNL’s Inventor of the Year.

David Fowler

David Fowler

David Fowler of ORNL’s Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate earned the Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Laboratory Operations. Fowler was honored for recent accomplishments that exceeded normal performance expectations and positively advanced ORNL’s mission. He also won the Excellence in Operations category.

Donald Cross of ORNL’s Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate earned the Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Community Engagement. Cross provided outstanding leadership and selfless dedication in community service through the mentoring of special needs children and adults in a wide variety of organizations. He also won the award for Exceptional Community Engagement by an Individual. [Read more…]

High school students receive UT scholarships in math competition

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Larry Shen of ORHS, a Math Contest Winner

Larry Shen of Oak Ridge High School was one of 10 students who recently won $4,000 annual scholarships to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in a UT-Pro2Serve Math Contest. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)

KNOXVILLE—Ten students were recently awarded $4,000 annual scholarships to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in a UT-Pro2Serve Math Contest.

More than 600 students from 50 Tennessee high schools participated in the competition held Nov. 14 at UT.

The scholarship winners included Larry Shen of Oak Ridge High School.

The other nine winners were:

  • Jia Liang of Collierville High in Collierville
  • Sanghwah “Samuel” Rhee of McCallie School in Chattanooga
  • Jason Wen of McCallie School in Chattanooga
  • Anwesh Dash of White Station High in Memphis
  • Sajant Anand of Science Hill High in Johnson City
  • Saaber Pourmotabbed of White Station High in Memphis
  • Queena Lu of Pope John Paul II High in Hendersonville
  • Yunhua Zhao of Memphis University School in Memphis
  • Zachary Strickland of Webb School of Knoxville in Knoxville [Read more…]

GIS Day on Wednesday at Roane State’s Oak Ridge campus

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Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge campus will host GIS Day from noon-3 p.m. Wednesday.

GIS Day is an international event that highlights the real-world applications of the geographic information systems, or GIS, field. Roane State offers a one-year certificate and a two-year associate degree in GIS.

“GIS is a great field that blends science, geography, mathematics and, in a way, art,” said Pat Wurth, associate professor and director of Roane State’s GIS program. “We want anyone interested in GIS to visit on GIS Day and learn more about how this technology and training is used in a variety of fields.” [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Today adds poll

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Oak Ridge Today has added a poll to the home page. We plan to add it to article pages, below the comment section, as soon as we can.

The first poll asks whether tax increment financing, or TIF, should be used to help redevelop the Oak Ridge Mall. We posted that poll late Sunday night/early Monday morning, before the Anderson County Commission approved the TIF in a 15-0 vote.

See the poll at the bottom left of the home page. We will try to add new poll questions as often as we can.

Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.

ORNL researcher wins Young Scientist Prize

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Clarina dela Cruz

Clarina Dela Cruz

Clarina Dela Cruz has won the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics C10 Young Scientist Prize, awarded by the American Physical Society. She was selected for her achievements in the field of strongly correlated electron systems.

Dela Cruz received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the National Institute of Physics at the University of the Philippines and her doctorate from the department of physics at the University of Houston.

She became a post-doctoral fellow in the Neutron Sciences Directorate at ORNL and the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Tennessee before becoming a lead instrument scientist at ORNL in 2010. She lives in Knoxville.

ORPD taking applications for Citizens Police Academy

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The Oak Ridge Police Department is now taking applications for the Citizens Police Academy, which will begin on Jan. 23 and run through March 27, 2014.

The Citizens Police Academy allows citizens to gain knowledge of how the Oak Ridge Police Department is organized and learn more about its functions, as well as improve understanding of the challenges in serving and protecting the community, a press release said. It requires a 10-week commitment from the participants and will be held one night a week, on Thursdays beginning at 6 p.m. and ending at 9 p.m. [Read more…]

Anderson Commission unanimously approves Oak Ridge Mall TIF, project goes to state

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Oak Ridge Mall Concept Plan Featured

The Anderson County Commission on Monday unanimously approved a $13 million tax financing agreement that could be used to help the $85 million redevelopment of the mostly empty Oak Ridge Mall.

CLINTON—The Anderson County Commission on Monday unanimously approved a $13 million tax financing agreement that could be used to help the $85 million redevelopment of the mostly empty Oak Ridge Mall.

The vote was 15-0. Anderson County Commissioner Mark Alderson was absent.

“I am extremely optimistic about this,” said Anderson County Commission Vice Chair Robin Biloski, an Oak Ridge resident.

It’s the fifth unanimous or near-unanimous vote on the project in less than a month. The tax increment financing, or TIF, had also been approved with no opposition, but with one abstention, by the Oak Ridge City Council, and it had also been endorsed with no opposition by the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board and Anderson County budget and operations committees. [Read more…]

Red light camera ‘scam’ actually an ORAU training exercise

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Note: This story was last updated at 9:25 a.m. Nov. 19.

The red light camera scam that authorities warned about on Monday evening was actually a training exercise intended to only be used internally at Oak Ridge Associated Universities, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The e-mails were created as part of ORAU’s cybersecurity training, and they were meant to help educate employees about so-called “phishing” scams.

The e-mails told recipients they had been captured on camera running a red light and had to pay a $50 fine. They instructed recipients to pay a fine through a PayPal link and warned them they could be subject to an extra $95 fee if they failed to do so. [Read more…]

Secret City Pies has ribbon cutting Tuesday

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Secret City Pies, a new business in west Oak Ridge, has a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday morning.

The ribbon-cutting is from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at 1990 C Oak Ridge Turnpike. It’s been organized by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

About 620 customers lose power during Sunday outage

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About 620 customers lost power during a Sunday afternoon outage, Oak Ridge Electric Director Jack Suggs said Monday.

The outage started around 3 p.m. and lasted until 4:45 p.m. It affected the center of the city north of Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Suggs said workers did not find the exact cause, but they suspect it was a tree limb that fell onto an electrical line and then blew off or fell through before workers arrived.

The outage affected the Oak Ridge Public Library, Oak Ridge High School, and Grove Center. [Read more…]

Sen. McNally part of effort to drug test judges

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Randy McNally

Randy McNally

Information from WYSH Radio

Tennessee Sen. Randy McNally and Rep. Ryan Haynes will introduce legislation that calls for drug testing all Tennessee judges, the two legislators announced Friday.

McNally, an Oak Ridge Republican, made the announcement after meeting Thursday with Knox County Prosecutor Leland Price and the families of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom. Christian and Newsom were raped, tortured, and murdered by Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, and Vanessa Coleman seven years ago.

“For a family to have to go through one trial where it involves the torturous murder of their loved one is far too painful for anyone to endure,” McNally said. “But, to have to go through two trials is inconceivable and inexcusable. This legislation addresses this so that no one will have to endure this kind of lengthy and excruciatingly painful court process again due to drug abuse by a judge.” [Read more…]

Roane County: Man suffers fatal heart attack behind wheel

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Information from WYSH Radio

A retired police detective died last week on a Roane County roadway when he suffered a heart attack behind the wheel.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol said Richard Phillip Hadorn, 67, had been driving his pickup truck on Winton Chapel Road Thursday afternoon when his truck left the roadway and crashed. State troopers said an autopsy determined that he had suffered a heart attack and was likely dead before the truck came to its final rest.

Hadorn, according to our partners at BBB-TV, had only recently moved here from Florida after retiring from the New York Police Department.