University of Tennessee Archives

‘Religion in Human Evolution’ topic of local faith-science lecture

Posted at 4:29 pm September 5, 2018
By Carolyn H Krause Leave a Comment

Gordon M. Burghardt

Gordon M. Burghardt, Alumni Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Psychology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, will speak on “Religion in Human Evolution” on Wednesday, September 12, in Oak Ridge.

Burghardt is the first lecturer in a new faith-science lecture series sponsored by First Presbyterian Church and First United Methodist Church, a press release said. The lecture, which will feature videos, will be held at 7 p.m. in the multipurpose room of FUMC, which can be reached through the double doors facing Vienna Road.

Burghardt will speak on the book “Religion in Human Evolution,” by Robert Bellah, the late distinguished sociologist of religion who taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the press release said.

Part of Bellah’s book is devoted to Burghardt’s research on ritual and play. [Read more…]

CPD Chief Scarbrough moving to UT’s Law Enforcement Innovation Center

Posted at 3:10 pm July 10, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Rick Scarbrough

Rick Scarbrough is leaving the Clinton Police Department after 16 years as chief. Scarbrough has accepted a position as executive director of the University of Tennessee’s Law Enforcement Innovation Center.

On Tuesday, the City of Clinton said it announced the departure with mixed emotions.

“When I say mixed emotions, I’m excited for the opportunity my friend has, but as city manager, I obviously hate to lose him as our police chief,” Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said in a press release.

Houck said he and Scarbrough have discussed the possibility the chief could be leaving, and they both think Assistant Chief Vaughn Becker is ready for the opportunity.

“We have had a succession plan in place for some time,” Houck said. Becker will become the interim Clinton police chief effective August 1. [Read more…]

‘Understanding Jerusalem: The Holy City & Why It Matters’ at Lunch with League on Tuesday

Posted at 10:22 am April 29, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Erin Darby

The speaker for Lunch with the League on Tuesday, May 1, will be Erin Darby, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Tennessee. Her presentation will introduce attendees to the modern history of Jerusalem and explain its political, cultural, and religious significance, including its role in regional and international conflict. She was scheduled to speak at the January 16 meeting, which was cancelled due to the weather.

The meeting will be held from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, which is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Darby is also co-director of the ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project in southern Jordan, and she leads the UT Dig Jordan study abroad program. An expert in the archaeology and texts of the Middle East, she has traveled extensively in the region, conducting research in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus, and Syria, a press release said. [Read more…]

UT MBA team to present Rails to Trails study findings

Posted at 4:53 pm April 18, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The former CSX railway is pictured near Jefferson Middle School in central Oak Ridge on Dec. 30, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The former CSX railway, which could be converted into a bike and pedestrian greenway, is pictured near Jefferson Middle School in central Oak Ridge on Dec. 30, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A team of graduate students from the University of Tennessee’s Master of Business Administration program will present recommendations next week to the City of Oak Ridge from a recent project that focused on how the city can promote its proposed Rails to Trails program.

The presentation, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, will be in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courtroom on South Tulane Avenue. It is open to the public.

The Rails to Trails project in Oak Ridge would convert about 4.85 miles of unused CSX railroad into a pedestrian and bicycle trail. The city has received a $1.2 million grant for the project and approved a $1.5 million contract with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, but there is still much work to be done, including acquiring the property and designing and building the trail. Officials suggest it could be several years at least before the project is completed.

The former railroad starts at Elza Gate Park at Melton Lake Drive in east Oak Ridge, runs past the Emory Heights neighborhood and Jefferson Middle School, crosses Emory Valley Road near Hank’s Market, and then continues through the Hendrix Creek neighborhood along Lafayette Drive before ending near South Illinois Avenue, Scarboro Road, and the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The study of the Rails to Trails program took the group of four MBA students about seven weeks to complete, a press release said. [Read more…]

Social justice, sociology of incarceration to be discussed Tuesday

Posted at 4:39 pm March 18, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Michelle Brown

Social justice and the sociology of incarceration will be discussed at Lunch with the League on Tuesday. The speaker will be Michelle Brown of the University of Tennessee Department of Sociology.

The meeting will be held from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 20, in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, which is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Brown received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Indiana University and joined the faculty at UT in 2011, a press release said.

“Currently, she studies and advocates for anti-prison and racial justice movements in carceral regimes,” the press release said. “She is particularly interested in the use of rights claims and visual tactics in community and national organizing.” [Read more…]

Five receive Muddy Boot Awards

Posted at 3:09 pm December 22, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Five people won Muddy Boot Awards this year. In the top row, from left, they are Tom Ballard, David Bradshaw, and Sue Cange. In the bottom row are David Millhorn, left, and Ken Rueter.

Five people received Muddy Boot Awards this year. They include scientists, business leaders, government officials, and a man who has done a little of everything during his career, a press release said.

Here are the winners of the 2017 Muddy Boot Awards, which are from the the East Tennessee Economic Council:

Tom Ballard, who has had three careers—with the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and now Pershing Yoakley and Associates, and still finds time to “spread the gospel of innovation” with his daily Teknovation.biz newsletter.
David Bradshaw, another multi-tasker who has worked at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Technology 2020, and most recently Pinnacle Financial Partners, and who has also served as the mayor of Oak Ridge and chairs of dozens of community causes.
Sue Cange, whose career with the U.S. Department of Energy saw her rise from a new employee in the environmental management program to the acting head of that same program before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University this fall and who, in many ways over the years, enabled the reindustrialization program at the East Tennessee Technology Park site.
David Millhorn, senior vice president of the University of Tennessee and a leader in the revitalization of both the university system and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Ken Rueter, president of URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), a relative newcomer to East Tennessee who brings energy to everything he does, whether it be the environmental stewardship programs at ETTP or his work building hiking and biking trails while supporting the Foothills Land Conservancy and the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.

“The one common trait in these five individuals,” ETEC President Jim Campbell said, “is the passion they bring in their own way to the work they do. Their dedication is infectious, and it makes everyone around them better. Clearly each person has made East Tennessee a better place to work, to play, and to thrive.” [Read more…]

UT executive David Millhorn, a UT-ORNL leader, died Monday at 72

Posted at 1:47 pm December 19, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

David Millhorn

KNOXVILLE—David Millhorn, University of Tennessee senior vice president emeritus and national laboratory relations advisor, died on Monday in Knoxville. Millhorn, who joined UT System Administration in 2005 as vice president for research and economic development, was 72.

In July, Millhorn transitioned to his most recent role with the university after having served as UT senior vice president and vice president for research, outreach, and economic development since 2016 and president of the UT Research Foundation since January 2014.

Two years after Millhorn’s service as a member of the UT president’s staff began in 2005, he took on the additional role of UT executive vice president and served in both that capacity and as vice president for research until 2016, a press release said.

Millhorn oversaw multiple, unprecedented achievements for the university’s research enterprise, the press release said. Among those, UT’s contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory—in partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute of Ohio—earned two five-year extensions, in 2010 and 2015, without having to re-compete. [Read more…]

Roane State experience helped musician Devan Jones find his path

Posted at 10:00 am October 17, 2017
By Owen Driskill Leave a Comment

Devan Jones (Submitted photo)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

Ask Roane State alumnus Devan Jones about working full-time in the music business, and he’ll pull no punches. “It’s a hustle and hard work 24/7,” he says. “It’s a tough business.”

“Sometimes it feels like it’s moving in slow motion, but things are getting better all the time,” says Jones, who credits educators in Roane State’s music department for helping inspire his career.

Jones grew up in Kingston, attended Roane State and the University of Tennessee, and performed at several Knoxville venues. He now lives in Austin, Texas, where he says there are “many different opportunities to play music that inspires me.”

While in Knoxville, he put together a band, “Devan Jones and the Uptown Stomp.” That moniker reflects his love of blues, as well as jazz and swing music of the 1940s and 50s. [Read more…]

Photos: ORHS WildBand performs with UT Pride of Southland at Neyland

Posted at 6:59 pm September 24, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge High School Wildcat Marching Band performs with the Pride of the Southland Band on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017, at the University of Tennessee and UMass football game. (Photo courtesy Ginger Meadows)

Note: This story was updated at 10 a.m. Sept. 25.

Here are photos of the Oak Ridge High School Wildcat Marching Band performing with the Pride of the Southland Band on Saturday at Neyland Stadium before and during the University of Tennessee and UMass football game.

The WildBand participated in the march to the stadium and the patriotic themed halftime performance.

Here are pictures by ORHS Counseling, Teresa Ledden, Ginger Meadows, Jutta Bangs, and Danny L. Weeks, along with a video by Kristin Hensley. [Read more…]

ORNL: High-resolution modeling assesses impact of cities on river ecosystems

Posted at 3:39 am August 24, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A new study from Oak Ridge National Laboratory shows the far-reaching impacts of U.S. cities’ energy consumption on regional ecosystems. Urban areas cover only about 5 percent of the Southeast’s landscape, but cities’ water and energy infrastructures often extend well beyond urban areas as power plants (represented as black dots) are distributed throughout the entire region. (Credit: Ryan McManamay/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

New mapping methods developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory can help urban planners minimize the environmental impacts of cities’ water and energy demands on surrounding stream ecologies, a press release said.

In an analysis published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an ORNL-led team used high-resolution geospatial modeling to quantify the effects of land, energy, and water infrastructures on the nation’s rivers and streams.

Using streamflow data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the researchers mapped changes to natural hydrology to assess how infrastructure development and competition over water resources affects the environment at a national scale. Their data-driven approach sheds light on the extent to which water resources and aquatic species are affected by urban infrastructures and could help cities curb their burden on regional ecosystems, the press release said.

The results indicate that urban land transformation and electricity production together affect 7 percent of U.S. streams, which influence habitats for more than 60 percent of all North American freshwater fish, mussel, and crayfish species, the release said. [Read more…]

Nuclear Suppliers Workshop in Oak Ridge in September

Posted at 10:15 pm August 8, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

The East Tennessee Economic Council and the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council are having a Nuclear Suppliers Workshop in Oak Ridge in September.

The workshop is September 6-7 at the Pollard Technology Conference Center in Oak Ridge.

The focus of the event will be on manufacturing opportunities arising in the southeastern United States around small modular reactors, next generation nuclear technology, nuclear medicine, and national security programs, a press release said.

Invited speakers include senior executives from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NuScale Power, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Terrestrial Energy, University of Tennessee, Duke Energy, and others. The final agenda is still under development, the press release said. [Read more…]

ORNL: World’s smallest neutrino detector finds big physics fingerprint

Posted at 9:37 am August 8, 2017
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory Leave a Comment

From left, Professor Yuri Efremenko of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Jason Newby of Oak Ridge National Laboratory are among 80 participants in COHERENT, a large, collaborative, particle physics experiment to record neutrinos at the Spallation Neutron Source. Photomultiplier tubes look like giant light bulbs and are used to detect light from neutrino interactions in detectors. COHERENT’s cesium iodide detector, the first to espy neutrinos at the SNS, employs a five-inch (13-centimeter) wide photomultiplier tube. An eight-inch (20-centimeter) wide photomultiplier (shown here) is deployed in COHERENT’s nearby liquid-argon detector. Measurements from different types of detectors are necessary for comprehensive studies of neutrinos at SNS. The scientists are standing in front of the cesium-iodide-detector shielding. (Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy; photographer Genevieve Martin)

By Dawn Levy/ORNL

After more than a year of operation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the COHERENT experiment, using the world’s smallest neutrino detector, has found a big fingerprint of the elusive, electrically neutral particles that interact only weakly with matter.

The research, performed at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and published in the journal Science, provides compelling evidence for a neutrino interaction process predicted by theorists 43 years ago but never seen.

“The one-of-a-kind particle physics experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was the first to measure coherent scattering of low-energy neutrinos off nuclei,” said ORNL physicist Jason Newby, technical coordinator and one of 11 ORNL participants in COHERENT, a collaboration of 80 researchers from 19 institutions and four nations.

The SNS produces neutrons for scientific research and also generates a high flux of neutrinos as a byproduct. Placing the detector at SNS a mere 65 feet (20 meters) from the neutrino source vastly improved the chances of interactions and allowed the researchers to decrease the detector’s weight to just 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms). In comparison, most neutrino detectors weigh thousands of tons: although they are continuously exposed to solar, terrestrial, and atmospheric neutrinos, they need to be massive because the interaction odds are more than 100 times lower than at SNS.

The scientists are the first to detect and characterize coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos off nuclei. This long-sought confirmation, predicted in the particle physics Standard Model, measures the process with enough precision to establish constraints on alternative theoretical models. [Read more…]