Lee Riedinger, Ph.D., knows the history of Oak Ridge and its connections to the University of Tennessee like he knows the back of his hand. His book, “Critical Connections: The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge from the Dawn of the Atomic Age to the Present,” explores the connections that exist between UT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORAU and other key stakeholders. In this episode of Further Together, Riedinger talks to hosts Michael Holtz and Amber Davis about ORAU’s role in the Oak Ridge story, including how ORNL may not have remained open were it not for the efforts of William Pollard, ORAU’s founder, Kay (Katherine) Way, a UT physics professor, and others to open up what was then Clinton Laboratories to a consortia of universities. Additionally, Riedinger explains that ORAU was instrumental in the creation of the UT-Battelle partnership that now manages ORNL. Check out this fascinating discussion of Riedinger’s career, his book, and ORAU’s vital role in keeping Oak Ridge at the forefront of science. Lee Riedinger is an emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, on the faculty since 1971 and retired in 2019, and also served as the founding Director of the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education from 2010 to 2019. He received a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1968. His field of research was experimental nuclear physics, emphasizing properties of high-spin states in deformed nuclei. He is an author of 200 refereed publications, has given 60 invited talks at conferences and workshops, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research was funded by the Department of Energy for 30 years from 1976 and was focused on experiments at accelerators at U.S. national labs (Oak Ridge, Argonne, Berkeley, Brookhaven) and abroad. Various sabbatical leaves were spent at the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark. He served as the elected chair of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the APS in 1996 and the chair of the Southeastern Section of the APS in 2004. In 1983-84, he was the science advisor to Tennessee Senator Howard Baker, who was then the majority leader of the U.S. Senate. He received the UT Chancellor’s Research Scholar Award in 1983, the 2005 Francis G. Slack Award from the Southeastern Section of the APS, the 2008-9 Macebearer award (the top UT faculty honor), the Chancellor’s Medal in 2012, the L.R. Hesler Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service in 2013, and the Graduate Director of the Year in 2017 from the UT Graduate Student Senate. In addition to teaching and research, he has served in a number of administrative leadership positions at the university: 1988-91, director of the Science Alliance Center of Excellence, a program devoted to building joint research between UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); 1991-95, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research; 1996–2000, head of the Physics Department; 2006-7 and again 2012, Vice Chancellor for Research. From 1993 to 1996, he was the first chair of the Tennessee Science and Technology Advisory Council, which advised the Governor and the Legislature on technical priorities for the state. In 1999 he was one of the leaders of the successful UT effort to choose a partner (Battelle) and bid on the ORNL management contract. From 2000 to 2004, he served as the ORNL Deputy Director for Science and Technology and from 2004 to 2006 as the Associate Laboratory Director for University Partnerships. UT-Battelle LLC has managed ORNL since 2000. Upon his return to the university in 2006, he led various efforts to develop a greater focus on energy teaching and research at UT. In September of 2010 he was appointed to be the first director of the UT-ORNL Bredesen Center, which is the academic home of a new doctoral program in energy science and engineering.

Luke Fountain, Ph.D., who is in the third year of his NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship, makes a return to Further Together because of a recently published paper he co-authored on plant biology and space exploration. His research focus is figuring out ho...

Are black soldier flies the superheroes of the insect world? This episode of Further Together takes a dive into an ORAU-Directed Research and Development Grant-funded project led by Holly Holt, Ph.D., ORAU research specialist, who teamed up with Jeff Tomberlin, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Etymology at Texas A&M University and Charity Owings, Ph.D., research assistant professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at the University of Tennessee. Black soldier flies are said to be voracious decomposers, feeding off anything organic. As they feed, they convert organic waste into insect biomass that can be used as feed for various livestock, such as poultry, swine, and even pets. The residual that's left over after digestion is a replacement for chemical fertilizer. The team’s research includes laboratory research to understand what happens to black soldier flies under stress; and social sciences research to analyze new and emerging opportunities with black soldier fly products and services and the potential to disrupt existing markets, including Western acceptance of using black solider flies for feed, fertilizer and other products. 

Ultra-processed foods – think packaged snacks, frozen meals and hot dogs – have become dietary staples due to their convenience, affordability and aggressive marketing. However, these foods have low to no nutritional value and can contribute to significant health issues like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and colorectal cancer. In this episode of Further Together, three of ORAU’s subject matter experts – Diane Krause, Brenda Blunt and Jennifer Reynolds – talk about a recently published white paper on social listening and perceptions of ultra-processed foods. Improving diet quality is a critical goal of the Make America Healthy Again Agenda promulgated by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., U.S. Health and Human Services secretary. Our experts talk in detail about the white paper and what their findings mean for future research and policy initiatives.  A feature story on the white paper, Insights from Social Media Conversations on X about Ultra-Processed Foods and Recommendations for Health Communications, along with a link to the paper itself, can be found here: https://www.orau.org/blog/programs/maha-gaining-insight-into-what-people-think-about-ultra-processed-foods-through-social-listening.html (https://www.orau.org/blog/programs/maha-gaining-insight-into-what-people-think-about-ultra-processed-foods-through-social-listening.html)

Molly Menzel, Ph.D., is an atmosphere scientist in the NASA Postdoctoral Program who conducts her research at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a smaller office under the umbrella of the Goddard Space Flight Center. When she started college, though, Menzel had no idea that she’d end up in her current fellowship. She was an engineering major focused on fluid dynamics and solid mechanics dynamics. During her graduate program she discovered atmospheric dynamics, which led to a focus on climate science. In this episode of Further Together, Menzel says her research doesn’t focus on day-to-day weather, but on the background context for why the weather is changing. To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html (https://npp.orau.org/index.html)

Behavioral health during cancer care is a critical issue. Anyone faced with a cancer diagnosis is faced with emotional, social, spiritual, familial and other issues. On top of that, for men in our society there is an expectation that vulnerability and asking for help is weakness. The non-profit organization Man Up to Cancer seeks to upend that expectation by helping men find social and emotional support from other men during their cancer journeys. MUTC has been successful at growing a community and gaining support from oncology community for its work, but no data exists to prove that peer-to-peer support for men facing cancer works. That’s where a 2025 ORAU-Directed Research and Development Grant comes in. Primary Investigator Katherine Chyka, ORAU health education specialist, and Teresa Hagan Thomas, PhD, RN, FAAN, associate professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, launched a pilot study to measure the acceptability and feasibility of peer-to-per support for men facing cancer. In this episode of Further Together, hosts Michael Holtz and Amber Davis talk to Chyka and Thomas for an early look at their research. Data analysis is still underway, but the team has already gained valuable insights. Disclosure: Holtz is chairman of the board of directors for Man Up to Cancer and proposed a study of peer-to-peer support for men facing cancer as part of a white paper he wrote in 2023. Holtz helped train navigators for the study and recruited members of the Community Advisory Board but was not involved in the study itself. The white paper and more information can be found here: https://www.orau.org/news/releases/2023/making-an-impact-on-cancer-personally-and-professionally.html (https://www.orau.org/news/releases/2023/making-an-impact-on-cancer-personally-and-professionally.html) To learn more about Man Up to Cancer, visit https://manuptocancer.org/ (https://manuptocancer.org/)ORAU-Directed Research and Development Grants support collaborations between ORAU subject matter experts and faculty at our University Consortium member institutions. To learn more, visit https://www.orau.org/partnerships/grant-programs/odrd.html (https://www.orau.org/partnerships/grant-programs/odrd.html) 

ORAU coordinates the evaluation of DOE former workers through the National Supplemental Screening Program. Through the NSSP, the U.S. Department of Energy offers free customized medical screenings to their former workers who may have been exposed to hazardous substances on the job site. On this episode of Further Together, host Michael Holtz and Wendy Benade, operations manager, and Heather O’Maonaigh, outreach manager, take a deep dive into the program, from outreach to enrollment and so much more. ORAU manages the program along with great partners, including National Jewish Health, Acuity International, Cority Software, and the Center for Health, Work & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health. Former workers include eligible DOE federal, contractor, and subcontractor workers. The screenings are designed to identify findings consistent with occupational diseases such as chronic respiratory illnesses, hearing loss, kidney or liver disease, and some forms of cancer. Since the program was established in 2005, more than 22,500 initial exams of former workers have been conducted, and more than 11,000 follow-up exams.   To learn more about the NSSP and the various former worker programs, visit:DOE Former Worker Medical Screening Program (FWP) website:https://www.energy.gov/ehss/former-worker-medical-screening-program-0 (https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.energy.gov%2Fehss%2Fformer-worker-medical-screening-program-0&data=05%7C02%7CMichael.Holtz%40orau.org%7C4269c8bdcf86454ab1d008de1d55260d%7C64c12663ddf34823aa6836a6247905ab%7C0%7C0%7C638980448715001920%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MNeNOa%2BBC3sQJlg0N5KoU504AoHV27fTa25MgAASljk%3D&reserved=0)Find Your Program Tool on the DOE FWP website: https://ehss.energy.gov/FWP_findyourprogram/ (https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fehss.energy.gov%2FFWP_findyourprogram%2F&data=05%7C02%7CMichael.Holtz%40orau.org%7C4269c8bdcf86454ab1d008de1d55260d%7C64c12663ddf34823aa6836a6247905ab%7C0%7C0%7C638980448715037218%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cCdk4Hu9ol4zqUWS5kx9e8oJrhUYjy%2FDfLkqLDahWx0%3D&reserved=0)NSSP website:https://orau.org/nssp (https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Forau.org%2Fnssp&data=05%7C02%7CMichael.Holtz%40orau.org%7C4269c8bdcf86454ab1d008de1d55260d%7C64c12663ddf34823aa6836a6247905ab%7C0%7C0%7C638980448715052076%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=OFTox%2FJZtiIUDjAd4oAn83rsteHH9hh7%2FjbaxK8x6vQ%3D&reserved=0)NSSP phone number (toll-free):1-866-812-6703

Aakash Chhabra, Ph.D., is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames. Chhabra's background is studying fires and forest ecology using satellite data or remote sensing data. He did his Ph.D. research in Australia on studying the effects of bushfires, he says, because it's a land shaped by fires. While writing his dissertation, he wrote down some ideas for future research. Then he learned about the NPP, contacted scientists at NASA and the rest, as they say, is history. In this episode of Further Together, Chhabra discusses his research and urges fellow scientists who have novel ideas to pursue them and seek out opportunities like the NASA Postdoctoral Program where those ideas can flourish. To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program or to apply, visit https://npp.orau.org/

Dray Gentry, a clinical physicist on ORAU’s radiation epidemiology team, is the primary investigator for an ORAU-Directed Research and Development Grant project that aims to determine the feasibility of using artificial intelligence to speed up the process of identifying chromosomal abnormalities in the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Laboratory, which is part of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education that ORAU manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. The second is to help determine the total dose cancer patients are exposed to during treatment. In this episode of Further Together, Gentry talks to hosts Michael Holtz and Amber Davis about his research, why it’s important and what he hopes to accomplish in the next phase of his project. 

ORAU is tackling one of the most pressing challenges of our time: food security. ORAU is seeking a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to lead efforts to strengthen America’s food systems against emerging threats like supply chain disruptions and biological hazards. ORAU’s recently published white paper, Strengthening Regional Food System Resilience: A Framework for Risk Assessment and Emergency Preparedness outlines a transformative plan to address these challenges. This framework leverages ORAU’s interdisciplinary expertise, advanced modeling tools and stakeholder engagement to help USDA identify vulnerabilities and implement targeted interventions. In this conversation, hosts Michael Holtz and Amber Davis talk to ORAU experts Kara Stephens, Matthew Schnupp and Rachel Vasconez about their white paper, the framework they have created, and why it matters now.

The National Institutes of Health Common Fund Data Ecosystem aims to enable broad use of Common Fund data to accelerate discovery. NIH Common Fund programs generate a wide range of diverse and valuable data sets and knowledge designed to be used by the research community. The CFDE aims to facilitate improved discovery, reuse, integration, and analyses of these datasets to form novel hypothesis for accelerating discoveries in biomedical research. ORAU received a contract from the NIH to develop a state-of-the-art training center for users of the CFDE. In this episode of Further Together, Allissa Dillman, Ph.D., co-principal investigator and owner of BioData Sage LLC, and Jennifer Burnette, ORAU project director, talk to host Michael Holtz about the importance of the CFDE Training Center and how it can help researchers mine data for omics research of various kinds. Dillman also hosts the Decoding the Data Ecosystem Podcast, which dives deep into unraveling the complexities and exploring the depths of omics data. The podcast can be found here: https://blubrry.com/3847772/Check out the Common Fund Data Ecosystem Training Center here: https://orau.org/cfde-trainingcenter/index.htmlFind the Common Fund Data Ecosystem here: https://commonfund.nih.gov/dataecosystem

As a child in rural Appalachia, Rachel Harris spent her days in her father’s vegetable garden, playing with dinosaur figurines and dreaming of ancient worlds. Today, she’s part of a very different world, working behind the scenes at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as a NASA Postdoctoral Management Program (NPMP) fellow. Harris, who holds a Ph.D. in geosciences with a focus on biogeochemistry and environmental microbiology, isn’t in a traditional lab or field site. Instead, she’s embedded in science management and policy, where NASA’s missions are carefully shaped and supported. In this episode of Further Together, Harris discusses how she wanted to watch the sausage get made from a space policy perspective. “I thought I had a good understanding of NASA bureaucracy, but I’ve come to realize how interconnected and thorough the process really is," Harris said. "There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that ensures everything NASA shares with the community is vetted and supported.” To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program, or to apply, visit https://npp.orau.org/

Luke Fountain, Ph.D., is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow on the Space Crop Production Team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The UK native's research focuses on on supplementing astronauts' diet with fresh food that is grown in space. "Eventually, we're hoping to replace calories. And as we transition to become more earth-independent, obviously, we want the astronauts to be able to supply, grow more of their own food, so we're less reliant on resupply," he said during his interview for Further Together. Fountain adds that growing plants in space is not easy, and that part of the challenge involves the significantly higher carbon dioxide levels in the International Space Station, where experiments involving plants take place. Learn more about Fountain's research and its importance to future space flight during this episode. Learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at https://npp.orau.org/ 

Bradley Gay, Ph.D., describes both his career and life paths as a “long-winding, topsy-turvy journey,” but the long road he took to get to the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was clearly worth it. Gay is a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he studies permafrost carbon feedback in Arctic tundra. In this episode of the Further Together: The ORAU Podcast, Gay talks about his research, why it is important, his career trajectory and more. He also highly recommends the NASA NPP program as a place for up-and-coming scientists to find their place. To learn more about NASA NPP, or to apply for a Postdoctoral Fellowship, visit https://npp.orau.org/

Sanchita Pal, Ph.D., is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow studying solar storms at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. In this episode of Further Together, Pal discusses the planetary impact of solar storms. “Earth has a magnetosphere, so that actually protects us from the heavy impact of these solar storms. But other planets like Mars and Venus, which do not have magnetospheres, are very much affected by these kinds of storms because they can lose their atmospheric mass, which is a huge field of study right now, as we are planning to go to Mars in the Artemis Mission.” Pal talks about growing up in India, moving to Finland for her research, how her interest in solar storms began, and how she leapt at the NPP opportunity. To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, visit https://npp.orau.org/about/orau.html

When Jim Sears retired from the U.S. Air Force after 33 years of service, friends and mentors told him he would miss two things: the people and the mission. Since joining ORAU as senior vice president a year ago, Sears says those are the things that keep him coming to work every day. That "has really been better than I could have expected for my first step on this second mountain of a journey," he said during a recent interview for Further Together: The ORAU Podcast. In this episode Sears discusses his career journey, the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in an ever-changing federal government landscape, why he and his wife moved to East Tennessee. and what brings him joy.

Ashley Stowe, Ph.D., is ORAU's new Chief Research and University Partnerships Officer. An accomplished scientist and inventor, Stowe joined ORAU after an 18-year career at the Y-12 National Security Complex that included standing up the Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center. In this episode of Further Together, the ORAU Podcast, Stowe talks about the excitement he has for the work being done by the Research and University Partnerships Office, including the focus on nuclear energy workforce capacity-building through the ORAU STEM Accelerator, the various grant programs offered to University Consortium Members, and the possibilities for research opportunities open to any employee at ORAU. All that his office manages has the potential to benefit our government agency customers and help grow the company. Check it out now!

Chinmayee Govinda Raj, Ph.D., is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow who conducts research for the Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications, or LEIA Project, at the NASA Ames Research Center. The LEIA Project will send microbes to the southern hemisphere of the moon on the upcoming Artemis II mission. Further Together host Michael Holtz talks to Govinda Raj about about her fellowship, and the fact that she is an outlier in her family. She says everyone in her family is an artist of some kind, and she wanted a change of pace. She knew from an early age that she wanted to work for NASA, but suffered from imposter syndrome. Still she took her journey one step at a time to get where she is today. Listen to the conversation to learn more. To learn about the NASA NPP, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html

Alberto Vazquez-Salazar, PhD, is a NASA postdoctoral fellow working at UCLA in the lab of Professor Irene Chen. He studies how life may have started on Earth by focusing on a molecule called RNA, or ribonucleic acid, which is a critical molecule that exists in all living things. His work is a part of astrobiology that explores how life began on Earth and how we might find signs of life elsewhere in the universe. In this episode of Further Together, Vazquez-Salazar talks to host Michael Holtz about how science has always seemed to be part of his life. Growing up in Mexico City, his mom, a botanist, kept books and plant specimens everywhere. “Science was just part of everyday life,” he says. “It was as normal as finding cereal in the pantry.” Listen to learn more about Vazquez-Salazar’s journey to NASA. To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program and when applications open, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html

Brenda Blunt, ORAU senior director of health policy, is passionate about the connections between nutrition and both physical and mental health. She is a mom, grandmother, wife, nurse, primal health coach, farmer and policy wonk. Blunt says all of those roles together make health and how we can better care for ourselves important to her. As Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, rolls out his plan to Make America Healthy Again, much of the focus is on the role of better nutrition and its connection to health. Blunt was MAHA before it was cool, and often leans into the teachings of Florence Nightingale, who advocated for a holistic view of health that emphasized the importance of fresh air, clean water, efficient drainage, cleanliness of patients and care areas, and sunlight. In this conversation, Blunt and hosts Michael Holtz and Matthew Underwood discuss how we got to being one of the richest countries in the world and one of the least healthy, how we didn’t get here overnight, how government agencies can work together to help Americans make better choices, and how we can individually and collectively take steps to make ourselves and the country healthier.