Oak Ridge Today

LeMond Composites to make carbon fiber, composite bicycles—invest $125 million, create 242 jobs

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Greg LeMond, three-time Tour de France champion, celebrated the opening of LeMond Composites, a new company he co-founded, during a ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 12, 2016, at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge. The company is expected to make composite bicycles and carbon fiber, and invest $125 million and create 242 new jobs. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A new company co-founded by Greg LeMond, a three-time Tour de France champion, will make composite bicycles and carbon fiber for other products in Oak Ridge, and the business, called LeMond Composites, will invest $125 million and create 242 new jobs, officials said during a Wednesday afternoon ceremony.

Among the officials celebrating the opening on Wednesday were LeMond, and Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd.

Carbon fiber has advantageous properties, but cost has been a barrier to using it, said Connie Jackson, chief executive officer of LeMond Composites. She said the manufacturing process has been changed to reduce production cost.

“We have overcome a significant part of the cost barrier,” Jackson said.

Carbon fiber is light, stiff, and strong, making it the perfect material for advanced composites in a variety of applications. It can be used to improve efficiency, save energy, and build or repair vehicles and planes, wind turbines and containers, and bridges and tunnels. [Read more…]

American Physical Society names ORNL’s Holifield Facility as historic physics site

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The Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pictured above. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

The American Physical Society on Monday honored the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as an APS Historic Physics Site.

It’s the first designated APS Historic Physics Site in Tennessee. The APS is one of the world’s top professional societies for scientists.

APS President-elect Laura Greene presented a plaque marking the historical designation of the now-decommissioned physics research facility to kick off the Nuclear Structure 2016 conference and Neutrinos in Nuclear Physics workshop being held this week in Knoxville. ORNL Deputy for Science and Technology Thomas Zacharia accepted the plaque for ORNL.

ORNL is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory.

“In naming the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility as a Historic Physics Site, the American Physical Society took into consideration the half century of nuclear and atomic physics research performed there, as well as the scores of scientists who performed experiments with its unique capabilities,” Greene said. “The Holifield Facility has indeed been an important contributor to the physical sciences history.” [Read more…]

UT, ORNL host academic-industry meeting on national lab partnerships

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host more than 200 university leaders and heads of industry this week at the 21st General Meeting of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership. UIDP21 will be held October 13-16 at the Hilton Downtown Knoxville and the ORNL campus.

UIDP21, an organization of 140 universities and companies, brings people from academia and industry together to have tactical conversations about innovation and research and development, a press release said.

Given the collaborative research and development relationship UT and ORNL enjoy, the focus of the Knoxville meeting is university-industry-national laboratory partnerships, the release said. Attendees will hear from speakers from seven of the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories, professors, and administrators from several prominent universities, and industry leaders. [Read more…]

ORNL names new deputy director for science, technology

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Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Note: This story was updated at 3:40 p.m.

A new deputy director has been named at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Ramamoorthy Ramesh of the University of California in Berkeley will start as the lab’s deputy director for science and technology on June 1, ORNL Director Thom Mason announced in an e-mail to staff on Thursday.

Ramesh will replace Thomas Zacharia, who left in August to take a science and education foundation based in Doha, Qatar. [Read more…]

ORNL has reception for Zacharia, departing deputy director

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Thomas and Sindhu Zacharia

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has a reception for departing Deputy Director Thomas Zacharia, front center, on Wednesday afternoon. Also pictured, at front left, is Zacharia’s wife Sindhu, and in the background are ORNL’s Sylvia Davis and University of Tennessee Executive Vice President David Millhorn. (Photos by ORNL’s Jason Richards)

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory had a reception Wednesday afternoon for deputy director Thomas Zacharia and his wife Sindhu, who are leaving at the end of the month.

Zacharia, ORNL deputy for science and technology, is leaving to take a leadership position at a science and education foundation based in Doha, Qatar.

He has worked for the lab for 26 years.

Zacharia will become executive vice president of research and development for the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.

[Read more…]

Zacharia leaving top ORNL job for Qatar Foundation

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Thomas Zacharia

Thomas Zacharia

Thomas Zacharia, a top administrator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is leaving to take a leadership position at a science and education foundation based in Doha, Qatar.

Zacharia, ORNL deputy for science and technology, will become executive vice president of research and development for the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.

He starts Sept. 1.

He has worked for the lab for 26 years.

[Read more…]