Oak Ridge Today

Sholl named interim executive director of UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute

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David Sholl will serve as interim executive director of the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute. (Photo credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Department of Energy)

David Sholl, director of the Transformational Decarbonization Initiative at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been appointed interim executive director of the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute. His appointment was effective Monday, June 12.

“Sholl’s background, passion, and expertise will ensure continued progress as the institute recruits exemplary joint research faculty, builds its research portfolio, develops students and prepares them to become leaders, and contributes to workforce development in areas important to Tennessee,” a press release said.

“The work UT faculty and students are doing in partnership with ORNL researchers is advancing the frontiers of knowledge and strengthening Tennessee’s leadership role in areas like clean energy, future mobility, advanced materials, and next-generation manufacturing,” said UT Chancellor Donde Plowman. “We look forward to working with David and to leveraging our strategic partnership with ORNL to advance discoveries, learning, and innovations that make life and lives better here in Tennessee and around the world.”

[Read more…]

UT to require masks indoors

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The University of Tennessee will require face masks indoors this fall semester.

Masks will be required in classrooms, laboratories, other places of instruction, and any indoor events that students are required to attend, UT said in a press release Monday.

The university may be the first school in the area to announce a mask requirement as the delta variant of the new coronavirus spreads in Tennessee and across the United States. Masks are not currently required in Oak Ridge Schools.

In the press release, UT System President Randy Boyd urged students, faculty, and staff members to talk with their families and healthcare providers about the benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccination.

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Volkswagen, UT, ORNL announce collaboration, innovation hub

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Volkswagen Group America Innovation North University Tennessee Research Park
Volkswagen Group of America will lease space in the Innovation North building on the UT Research Park campus. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)

Volkswagen Group of America, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee on Friday announced a collaboration to create Volkswagen’s first innovation hub in North America at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm.

“Working with the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a great opportunity to continue growing Volkswagen’s engineering footprint in the North American region,” said Wolfgang Demmelbauer-Ebner, executive vice president and chief engineering officer for Volkswagen’s North American region. “This hub, along with other research institutions here, is an integral part of Volkswagen’s global research and development efforts and can also directly contribute to vehicles in North America.”

The collaboration involves research opportunities for doctoral students and space in the Innovation North building at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm in Knoxville, a press release said. Initial work will focus on developing lighter vehicle components made from composite materials and the electrification of vehicles.

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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…]

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

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David Millhorn

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…]

UT students, faculty members safe after London attacks

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Officials have accounted for the 43 University of Tennessee students and four faculty members in London, and all are safe, UT said Monday.

Oak Ridge Today has received a report that one of the students is from Oak Ridge, but UT wasn’t able to confirm that. A spokesperson said she didn’t have access to student information.

“I can tell you we have 43 students and four faculty members in London, and all have been accounted for/are safe,” said Katherine Saxon, UT coordinator for student communications and social media team member. [Read more…]

ORNL: UT-Battelle Scholarship awarded to Bearden student

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UT-Battelle Scholarship winner Allison Michelle Campbell of Bearden High School with Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason. (Photo by ORNL)

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…]

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…]

UT students studied how to use Centennial for more than golf; hear their recommendations Tuesday

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Centennial Golf Course in east Oak Ridge is pictured above. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

Centennial Golf Course in east Oak Ridge is pictured above. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

 

A team of graduate business students at the University of Tennessee have studied ways the city can use Centennial Golf Course for more than just golf, and the students will present their recommendations on Tuesday. The meeting is open to the public.

The graduate students are from UT’s Master of Business Administration, or MBA, program. They will present their recommendations from a recent “Innovations in Practice” project to the City of Oak Ridge at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courtroom.

There has been discussion of how to increase revenues at the golf course, including at Oak Ridge City Council meetings when the city has been asked to provide more money for the golf course.

A press release said the study of Centennial Golf Course took the group of four MBA students approximately seven weeks to complete. [Read more…]

UT, NOAA to collaborate on atmospheric sciences research

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Taylor Eighmy, UT vice chancellor for research and engagement, left, and Bruce Baker, director of NOAA’s Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, headquartered in Oak Ridge, right, sign a memorandum of agreement in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)

Taylor Eighmy, left, UT vice chancellor for research and engagement, and Bruce Baker, right, director of NOAA’s Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, which has headquarters in Oak Ridge, sign a memorandum of agreement in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)

 

The University of Tennessee in Knoxville has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, or ATDD, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Air Resources Laboratory to advance collaborative research in atmospheric sciences. ATDD has headquarters in Oak Ridge.

The agreement was signed Wednesday, February 15, at ATDD headquarters in Oak Ridge, and it will help with joint efforts to advance understanding of air pollution, atmospheric transport processes, and weather on a regional and national level, a press release said. It also will create educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to collect scientific data, develop models and simulations, and transition research to applications and commercial use.

“The mission of the collaboration will be to train the next generation of scientists and engineers and provide the best available atmospheric data and scientific analysis to the global scientific community, to local and national decision makers, and to the general public,” said Bruce Baker, director of the ATDD. [Read more…]

UT Arboretum Society has global warming, climate change program Thursday

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Joanne Logan

Joanne Logan

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will present a program on global warming and climate change on Thursday in Oak Ridge.

The program, titled “It’s all in the Timing: Impacts of Global Warming on Ecosystems and Phenology,” is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, January 19, in the City Room at Roane State Community College.

It will be presented by Joanne Logan, who is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee and a renowned expert on the subject, a press release said. Logan is an associate professor in the UT Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science. She has studied applied and agricultural climatology for 30 years, and she directs the undergraduate program in environmental and soil siences, the press release said. [Read more…]

George joins elite group as ORNL-UT Governor’s Chair

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easo-george

Easo George becomes the 15th Governor’s Chair. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

 

Easo George, one of the world’s foremost authorities on advanced alloy development and theory, has been named the 15th Governor’s Chair at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.

George comes from the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, where he has been professor of materials design and director of the Center for Interface Dominated High Performance Materials since November 2014. Prior to that, he had a career of nearly three decades at ORNL, where he was a distinguished research staff member and head of the Alloy Behavior and Design Group. He was also a professor of materials science and engineering at UT since 2002, a press release said.

“I am honored to have been chosen for this position,” George said in the press release. “There is already tremendous synergy between ORNL and UT in advancing materials research, and I cannot wait to help build even more momentum.” [Read more…]