Further Together the ORAU Podcast

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. In this role he taught the core two-semester graduate energy technology course and led all aspects of this interdisciplinary energy PhD program. A second interdisciplinary doctorate in data science and engineering between UT and ORNL started in August of 2017. He retired from UT at the end of 2019 and has written a book on the long history of the partnership between UT and Oak Ridge: Critical Connections: The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge from the Dawn of the Atomic Age to the Present, published by UT Press in 2024. To learn more about the book, visit https://utpress.org/title/critical-connections/

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 how to grow plants in space to help enable future deep exploration. In this conversation, Fountain shares the challenges of plant biology in space, including the need to make growing systems self-sustaining. The paper he co-authored, published in the New Phytologist in November 2025, lays out a 12-point framework called the Bioregenerative Life Support System readiness level to assist in overcoming challenges to establish resilient, sustainable crop production. Fountain's paper, "Expanding frontiers: harnessing plant biology for space exploration and planetary sustainability," can be found here. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.70662. New Phytologist is a leading international journal focusing on high quality, original research across the broad spectrum of plant sciences, from intracellular processes through to global environmental change. The journal is owned by the New Phytologist Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of plant science. https://www.newphytologist.org/ ORAU manages the NASA Postdoctoral Program for the National Aeronautic and Space Administration. To learn more about the program, meet some of the Fellows, or apply to become a Fellow, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html.

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

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