Description

Join us at ETEC in person or virtually on Friday, November 8 at 7:30am to hear from Lee Riedinger and two of his co-authors (Al Ekkebus and Ray Smith), speaking about Critical Connections: The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge from the Dawn of the Atomic Age to the Present. This will be a panel type program led by Alan Lowe from the American Museum of Science and Energy. Co-author William Bugg will be unable to attend. The book summary and editorial information is below.

No registration is necessary for in-person attendance.

Click here to register for the VIRTUAL meeting (note, this is a NEW link for the 2024 ETEC Friday morning  meetings):
https://tennessee.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctdu2vqzwiHNMa_b5aisjx0xKW2eP4C6mY

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Visit the Find Us page for the meeting location, address, and map.

This month's ETEC Friday Morning Meeting Series are sponsored by Strata-G.  

Critical Connections: The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge from the Dawn of the Atomic Age to the Present.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor set off a chain of events that included the race to beat German scientists to build the atomic bomb. A tiny hamlet tucked away in the southern Appalachians proved an unlikely linchpin to win the race. The Manhattan Project required the combination of four secret sites—Clinton Laboratories, Y-12, K-25, and S-50—75,000 workers, and the nation’s finest scientists to create the Secret City, Oak Ridge. From the beginning, the effort was aided by the nearby University of Tennessee, which provided expertise to make the weapon possible. Following World War II, it was not clear what role this huge research and development program would play, but pioneering scientists and administrators were determined that one option—dismantling the whole thing—would not happen.

Critical Connections chronicles how Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Y-12 National Security Complex, and their partners became outstanding examples of the military-industrial-educational complex from the Cold War to the present day. At the beginning of the 1950s, Oak Ridge became a flourishing, less-secret city, and the authors show how, decade by decade, ORNL became the source of major breakthroughs in physics, biology, computing, and other fields—and how these achievements required ever-closer connections with UT. By the mid-1990s, after many successful joint initiatives between UT and ORNL, UT was poised to compete to become the manager of ORNL. In 2000, UT-Battelle LLC won the bid from the Department of Energy: UT was charged with providing scientific direction and key personnel; its partner Battelle would oversee ORNL’s operations and chart its technology direction.

The authors highlight the scientific developments these connections have brought, from nanotechnology to nuclear fission, from cryogenic experiments on mice to the world’s fastest supercomputer. The partnerships between a university, a city, and federal facilities helped solve some of the greatest challenges of the twentieth century—and point toward how to deal with those of the twenty-first.

Editorial Reviews