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Suresh Babu to lead UT-ORNL Bredesen Center

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Suresh Babu

Suresh Babu

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville have selected Suresh Babu as the next director of their jointly operated Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education.

Babu will retain his position as UT-ORNL governor’s chair for advanced manufacturing when he assumes his new role on January 3, a press release said. He will be replacing Lee Riedinger, who is retiring at the end of January.

“Dr. Babu has worked extensively with both UT and ORNL through his governor’s chair position, and we’re excited about him taking on this new role,” UT Knoxville Interim Chancellor Wayne T. Davis said in the press release. “He is a nationally recognized expert in the development of advanced materials and advanced manufacturing and has helped us emerge as a leader in those critical research areas.” [Read more…]

A first of its kind: UT, ORNL offer ‘big data’ doctorate

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The use of big data—collecting and interpreting vast amounts of information—has rapidly grown in importance across areas ranging from health care to nuclear security.

To help meet that demand, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a first-of-its kind data science and engineering doctoral program, the only one in the United States to pair a university and national laboratory and one of just three such big data doctoral programs in the U.S. overall, a press release said.

The program, which was announced at the spring UT Board of Trustees meeting, hopes to enroll 15 Ph.D. candidates when it begins this fall, with the eventual goal of having 100 students at any given time.

In granting approval for the new program last week, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission noted that it is an answer to its call for the state’s higher education institutions to strengthen graduate-level education and address challenges befitting top research institutions, the press release said. [Read more…]

Bredesen Center graduates first class with help from ORNL, UT

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Bredesen Center

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason (seated, at left) and former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen sign certificates for the Bredesen Center’s first two graduates, Vincent Kandagor and Scott Curran (standing, from left) while center Director Lee Riedinger (at right) watches. (Submitted photo)

 

KNOXVILLE—Two students were the first to earn a new doctoral degree this month from the Energy Science and Engineering program founded by former Gov. Phil Bredesen in partnership with the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The General Assembly approved the program in a special session on education in January 2010. The first class enrolled in the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education in fall 2011, and it is now one of UT’s fastest-growing graduate programs.

Scott Curran and Vincent Kandagor earned their doctorates in energy science and engineering at UT’s graduate hooding on Thursday, May 8.

“We’re awfully proud of Scott and Vincent,” said Bredesen Center Director Lee Riedinger. “They both transferred into our program once we’d started and were able to really shine, to really do some positive things.” [Read more…]

Student at UT’s Bredesen Center wins $50,000 ORNL prize

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Andrew Lepore Big Idea ORNL Check

Bredesen Center student Andrew Lepore stands with the $50,000 check he won as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Next Big Idea competition. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)

KNOXVILLE—With the first set of Bredesen Center graduates at the University of Tennessee set to receive their doctorates next week, students who will be in the next wave of graduates are already finding success.

Andrew Lepore, working out of the Materials Science and Technology Division through the center, recently won a prestigious Oak Ridge National Laboratory-related prize at the Next Big Idea competition. Lepore is on track to receive his doctorate in 2016.

“For him to go in there against some more seasoned researchers, against students who are further along, and come out with one of the three awards speaks highly of him and of the quality of students we have here,” said Bredesen Center Director Lee Riedinger. [Read more…]

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