SCIENCE EDUCATION
Laying the Foundation

Researcher using ORNL library resources.

Since its inception, ORNL has made resources available for educational training and research opportunities. When Eugene Wigner in early 1946 became ORNL's research director, he established the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology. The school became the model for nuclear engineering courses at several universities and is one of ORNL's greatest contributions to nuclear energy. Among the school's graduates were leaders of the nuclear industry, including Captain Hyman G. Rickover, who came to Oak Ridge to investigate whether nuclear energy should be used by the U.S. Navy.

ORNL's educational outreach expanded in the mid-1980s with the creation of the Science Alliance, a joint program of research with the University of Tennessee. Funded by the state of Tennessee, the Science Alliance signaled a belief in the public benefit of joining the research agendas of ORNL and UT.

The relationship expanded further in 2000 when UT joined Battelle as the managing contractor for ORNL. Each year since has witnessed a growth in the number of joint faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers working at both institutions. The UT-ORNL partnership includes new facilities and institutes, managed jointly, for biological sciences, computational sciences, and neutron sciences.

ORNL's close ties with UT today are complemented by partnerships with Oak Ridge Associated Universities and six core universities with which the laboratory conducts a variety of research activities. The core universities, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech, provide a variety of research competencies that support the Laboratory's agenda.

ORNL's educational outreach is not confined to higher education. Each year more than 6000 area K-12 students receive science education classes sponsored by the laboratory. ORNL also is a primary sponsor of science and engineering competitions, as well as science, math and engineering scholarships to the University of Tennessee.

In 2003, as it did 60 years ago, ORNL's mission includes a commitment to share the benefits of scientific exploration.

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