Rick Perry
Energy Secretary Rick Perry is coming to Oak Ridge on Monday at the invitation of U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.
U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge, will also attend.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Perry, a former Texas governor, as the 14th United States energy secretary on March 2. (You can see his biography here.) This will be his first trip to Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
UT-Battelle Scholarship winner Allison Michelle Campbell of Bearden High School with Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason. (Photo by ORNL)
Bearden High School senior Allison Michelle Campbell has been named recipient of the 2017 UT-Battelle Scholarship to attend the University of Tennessee.
The scholarship is awarded to a graduating senior planning to study science, mathematics, or engineering at UT. The competitive scholarship is presented annually to a graduating student with a parent employed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory by UT-Battelle, ORNL’s managing contractor, a press release said.
The scholarship is renewable for up to four years and is worth a total of $20,000. Campbell is the daughter of ORNL staff member Amy C. Campbell, who works in the Business Services Directorate, and Michael A. Campbell.
Among numerous activities at Bearden, Campbell is president of Bearden’s National Honors Society chapter and a member of the Mu Alpha Theta mathematics honors society. In the summer of 2015, she was selected for the Governor’s School for Science and Engineering and the National Science Foundation’s Young Scholars Program. [Read more…]
Chap Percival (Submitted photo)
The 20th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series opens on Thursday, May 18, and it will feature Chap Percival, a science educator from Sarasota, Florida.
Percival will talk about the total solar eclipse that will occur on August 21. The title of his presentation is “Go See the Eclipse.”
This event is co-sponsored by the Oak Ridge Isochronous Observation Network (ORION), the National Park Sevice (NPS), and Friends of ORNL (FORNL), a press release said.
It’s free of charge, and it will be held at the American Museum of Science and Energy, which is at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge. A reception will be held in the museum lobby starting at 5:30 p.m. (snacks will be served), and the lecture will start at 6 p.m. in the museum auditorium.
“This talk should be of interest to students and the general public,” the press release said.
Percival is a lifelong educator. He lives in Sarasota, Florida. He has a BA in mathematics and physics from Taylor University, an MAT in planetarium education from Michigan State University, and an MEd in instructional technology from the University of Virginia, the press release said. [Read more…]
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…]
Brian T. Gibson (Photo courtesy ORNL)
Brian T. Gibson, a postdoctoral research associate at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named one of the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineers for 2017.
Gibson has doctorate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the West Virginia University Institute of Technology, a press release said. He works in the Materials Processing and Joining group in the Materials Science and Technology Division at ORNL.
Before joining ORNL, Gibson studied as a Tennessee Space Grant fellow in the Vanderbilt University Welding Automation Laboratory. His research focuses on technical challenges at the intersection of robotics and materials processing, with specific research interests that include solid-state joining, additive manufacturing, in-process quality monitoring, robotic force control, and signal processing, the press release said.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science. The 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, the press release said. For more information, visit http://science.energy.gov/.
Geoffrey G. deBeauclair (Photo courtesy DOE)
Geoffrey “Geoff” G. deBeauclair has been named deputy manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office/Integrated Support Center. The appointment was effective May 1, a press release said.
It’s one of DOE’s most diverse field locations, the press release said. As deputy manager, deBeauclair will help Oak Ridge Office Manager Ken Tarcza manage the Oak Ridge Integrated Support Center. That center provides critical mission support services locally and nationally in the areas of personnel, finance, budget, procurement, legal, security and emergency management, and employee health and safety, the press release said.
“He will also be responsible for advancing ORO’s responsibilities for management of the 32,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation, which will include addressing cross-cutting issues and among major activities, including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, East Tennessee Technology Park, and Y-12,” the press release said. [Read more…]
Katharine Hayhoe (Photo credit: Mark Umstot Photography)
Katharine Hayhoe, a nationally-recognized climate scientist and evangelical Christian, will give a talk in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, May 16, a press release said.
The free talk is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge and the Climate Change Science Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Seats are limited.
Hayhoe’s presentation is titled “Climate for Change.” It’s scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, at the Pollard Technology Conference Center at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge.
Hayhoe is both a distinguished climate scientist and an evangelical Christian, the press release said. An atmospheric scientist, her research focuses on developing and applying high-resolution climate projections to understand what climate change means for society.
Hayhoe has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 leading global thinkers, and she was recently named one of Fortune’s world’s greatest leaders, the press release said. She is a professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. [Read more…]
A wildlife nature walk featuring observance of the pink lady’s slipper will be conducted from 1:30 until 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 7, on the Oak Ridge Reservation.
This is part of the spring nature walk series offered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was rescheduled due to rain from a previous date.
Participants will meet at 1:30 p.m. at the North Boundary Greenway along Tennessee Highway 95 located east of the junction with Tennessee Highway 58. [Read more…]
An image showing the K-25 History Center on the second floor of the city-owned fire station, right, at East Tennessee Technology Park, with the Equipment Building and Viewing Tower at left. (Graphic by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)
Construction could start this year on the K-25 History Center at the East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge, federal officials said. Plans also call for an Equipment Building and Viewing Tower at the site. Although the projects depend upon funding, the goal is to finish the work by 2019.
The K-25 site was one of three large sites built by the federal government in Oak Ridge during World War II to help make the world’s first atomic weapons as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. The other two sites were X-10, which is now known as Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12, now the Y-12 National Security Complex.
At K-25, the three history-related facilities will have three missions. The History Center will tell the story of the workers. The Equipment Building will focus on the technology. And the Viewing Tower will show visitors the size of the site. All three facilities will be on the south side of the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building.
K-25 used a process called gaseous diffusion to enrich uranium for atomic weapons and, later, for commercial nuclear power plants. Officials and contractors have said that K-25 helped win the Cold War. The site is now known as Heritage Center or East Tennessee Technology Park.
Preserving its history is part of a Memorandum of Agreement that was signed in August 2012 and allowed for the complete demolition of K-25, once the world’s largest building under one roof. The historic preservation work is expected to cost about $20 million total. [Read more…]
An agreement signed Friday, Dec. 30, 2016, by the U.S. Department of Energy and City of Oak Ridge calls for the American Museum of Science and Energy missions to be relocated within about one year to 18,000 square feet of space in a two-story building that once housed a Sears Roebuck store next to JCPenney at Main Street Oak Ridge. It’s not yet clear if the National Park Service, which has shared space with AMSE, will also move into this building. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
It’s not clear yet where the National Park Service will go when the American Museum of Science and Energy building closes at the end of the year, but a federal official said the Park Service will stay in Oak Ridge.
It could relocate to a two-story building that once housed Sears Roebuck at Main Street Oak Ridge, the former Oak Ridge Mall. That’s where the U.S. Department of Energy’s public education and outreach missions, now housed at the American Museum of Science and Energy, are moving.
But the National Park Service hadn’t committed to moving there as of April 17, said Niki Nicholas, site manager of the Oak Ridge unit of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The NPS needs more information, Nicholas said in response to questions after a Monday afternoon presentation to AAUW, or American Association of University Women. (A reader had told Oak Ridge Today of an April 17 letter reportedly sent from the Manhattan Project National Historical Park to federal officials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which manages AMSE.)
Nicholas said the National Park Service has several options in Oak Ridge, including Main Street Oak Ridge. But she declined to elaborate on the precise number of options, where they might be, or what organizations or businesses might be co-located in those buildings. [Read more…]
Two more nature walks are scheduled this spring on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation.
They include frog calls and bat monitoring on Friday, May 19, and reptiles and amphibians inventory on Sunday, June 4.
Previous walks included wildflower walks on Saturday, April 15, and Sunday, April 23, and a bird walk on Saturday, April 29.
The May 19 frog calls and bat monitoring event runs from 8 until 10 p.m. as participants will visit some small impounded waterbodies along the Freels Bend causeway to learn how Oak Ridge National Laboratory personnel are monitoring local bat populations and how to identify local frog populations based on calls. Nikki Jones and Kitty McCracken will lead the group along a one-mile level dirt and gravel road. A reliable flashlight is recommended as the walk will occur after sunset, a press release said. The walk is limited to 25, and children are allowed.
The Mercury Treatment Facility that will be at the east end of Y-12 National Security Complex could start operating in 2022. (Image by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)
Note: This story was updated at 2 p.m.
Site preparation could start later this year for the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex as the U.S. Department of Energy prepares for demolition and cleanup work at the nuclear weapons plant.
DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, expects to complete demolition and cleanup work at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, in 2020. It will then focus on the large-scale demolition work at Y-12.
Among the Y-12 buildings that could be demolished are Alpha 4, Alpha 5, and Beta 4, all large buildings where mercury, a toxic metal, was once used. The buildings used mercury to separate lithium for nuclear weapons. The lithium separation operations started in 1955 and ended in 1963.
But before that cleanup work can begin, OREM needs the Mercury Treatment Facility. The plant was first announced at a press conference featuring U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, about four years ago, in May 2013.
“This water treatment plant is a major step in addressing one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury once used to make nuclear weapons getting into our waterways,” Alexander said at the time. [Read more…]
