ORAU Chronology Captions Transcript
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1946: On October 15, 1946 the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORINS) was
incorporated.
1947: The first meeting of the ORINS Board of Directors was held and Dr. William G.
Pollard (pictured far right) was elected Acting Executive Director.
1948: The Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies signed its first long-term contract with
the Atomic Energy Commission on May 24, 1948.
1949: The first divisions were setup—including the Medical Division and Educational
Services Division—the ORINS-managed American Museum of Atomic Energy was
opened, and construction of the ORINS Cancer Research hospital began.
1950: The ORINS Cancer Research hospital opened and began treatment of its first
patient. An animal colony and experimental laboratory were completed in cooperation
with the University of Tennessee and the Atomic Energy Commission.
1951: ORINS began administering the Atomic Energy Commission’s predoctoral and
postdoctoral fellowship programs, advanced medical courses in radioisotopes were
conducted, and ORINS partnered with the National University Extension Association to
develop a traveling atomic energy exhibit.
1952: ORINS continued its work with radiation as cancer therapy, designing and testing
a cobalt-50 teletherapy machine, which was later delivered to M.D. Anderson Cancer
Research Hospital. A new five-year contract was signed with the Atomic Energy
Commission.
1953: ORINS’ Museum Division instituted a science fair program, which ultimately
initiated more than 2,000 new science fairs in the South. ORINS also began
administration of the Atomic Energy Commission’s industrial hygiene fellowship.
1954: The ORINS Special Training Division facilities received extensive renovations to
include new laboratories and enlarged lecture rooms.
1955: The ORINS Medical Division received a special teletherapy machine that permitted
irradiation of a specified area of diseased tissue with less harm to healthy tissue. The
division also began the thyroid uptake calibration program, using half-body mannequins
with artificial thyroids containing an iodine substitute.
1956: The Atomic Energy Commission deeded 38 acres of land in Oak Ridge to ORINS on
which to build the organization’s permanent headquarters. The Traveling Science
Demonstration Lecture Program was begun, and the Atomic Energy Commission
announced significant expansion of the ORINS traveling atomic-energy exhibits as part
of President Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace program.
1957: The Medical Division completed the first and second phases of thyroid uptake
calibration program, and the Special Training Division conducted the first radiation
chemistry course at ORINS.
1958: A new Central Administration Building was constructed and dedicated to serve
the ORINS headquarters. The Special Training Division designed and deployed two
mobile radioisotope laboratories, which were made available for use by the
International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as universities across the country.
1959: Various new training programs emerged for students and science teachers, and
the first courses on the use of radioisotopes in industry were held.
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1960: The new total body irradiation facility was completed, and the first patient was
treated using the Medium Exposure Total Body Irradiator.
1961: A colony of South American marmosets was established at ORINS for the study of
bone marrow transplantation.
1962: The ORINS’ traveling exhibit program ended, and the one-millionth visitor was
welcomed to the American Museum of Science and Energy.
1963: Construction on a new library building and administration building for ORINS was
completed, and experimental immunology studies were began on the marmoset colony.
1964: The Medical Division began its whole body counting program to assess the level of
whole body radiation received by patients or accident victims.
1965: A cytogenetics program was formalized as part of the Medical Division, and a
conceptual design for a low-dose rate whole-body irradiator was completed.
1966: Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies officially became known as Oak Ridge
Associated Universities on January 1, 1966.
1967: The Oak Ridge Engineering Practice School—a joint project by ORAU, The
University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Atomic Energy
Commission—was began to give undergraduates experience in solving real-world
engineering problems.
1968: Construction of a 10,000-square-foot building to house the colony of marmosets
was completed. ORAU’s colony was the only one in the U.S. being developed for general
lab research. Medical Division staff discovered that gallium-67 localized in a variety of
cancers in humans.
1969: More than 4,300 visitors in a single day came to the American Museum of Atomic
Energy to view the first Oak Ridge showing of moon samples returned from the Apollo
11 mission. Certain hardware for the lunar-landing mission was designed and fabricated
at ORNL and the Atomic Energy Commission’s Y-12 Plant.
1970: The University Isotope Separator at Oak Ridge (UNISOR) was established by ORAU
and 11 universities in cooperation with ORNL for fundamental research on nuclear
structure. The first courses in radiation protection were offered for state radiation
control officers.
1971: ORAU celebrated its 25th anniversary by signing its sixth long-term contract with
the Atomic Energy Commission for a five-year period. The Atomic Energy Commission
and Food and Drug Administration agreed to support the new Center for Information on
Internal Dosimetry at ORAU for the collection and interpretation of information on
internal dosimetry of radiopharmaceuticals.
1972: The Oak Ridge Population Research Institute—made possible through a
partnership of ORAU, ORNL and the University of Tennessee—began operation. In a
collaborative study with ORNL, ORAU learned that marmosets have cytogenetic
responses to total body irradiation similar to those in humans.
1973: The cytogenetics program completed work on one of the largest studies of
frequencies of chromosome breakage ever conducted by a single laboratory at the time.
The study was to determine the effects of synthetic compounds, such as oral
contraceptives, on chromosomes.
1974: The Institute for Energy Analysis was formed at ORAU—by former ORNL Director
Alvin Weinberg—to study alternatives to meet the nation’s energy requirements. ORAU
founder Pollard retired, and the ORAU clinical cancer research program was ended.
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1975: ORAU began the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS)
for radiation accident management and training.
1976: The Training and Technology (TAT) program in the Manpower Development
Division celebrated its 10-year anniversary, have graduated nearly 3,100 persons in
industrial education.
1977: The ORAU Institute for Energy Analysis emerged as a leader in the study and
appraisal of the effect of accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the
burning of fossil fuels (known as the “greenhouse effect”).
1978: The Training Research and Data Exchange (TRADE) network was founded to share
training and related information throughout the DOE system. ORAU’s Epidemiology
group completed a mortality study of Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers
exposed to low levels of metallic nickel and found no increase in deaths due to
respiratory diseases in these workers.
1979: Researchers in ORAU’s Biochemistry Program discovered the structure of the
platelet-activating factor (PAF), a lipid that plays a crucial role in several biological
processes such as cell growth. A new marmoset breeding facility was constructed to
propagate the colony for biomedical research.
1980: The Institute for Energy Analysis began further assessing the carbon dioxide
problem and how to adjust the worldwide rate of fossil fuel combustion. ORAU was also
asked to establish health physics teams to perform radiation surveys of active and
inactive radioactive materials handling sites in the U.S.
1981: The Department of Labor named ORAU’s Training and Technology Program as one
of the top 25 training programs in the nation for industrial skills training. The
Comparative Animal Research Laboratory became the newest division of ORAU. The
Institute for Energy Analysis’ research included studies such as the link between
prenatal diagnostic X-rays and childhood cancer.
1982: The Pollard Auditorium, named for ORAU founder William G. Pollard, was
constructed.
1983: ORAU’s University Programs Division organized a major DOE conference in
Washington, D.C., to acquaint representatives from Historically Black Colleges and
Universities with DOE’s mission, research areas, and proposal submission procedures.
1984: ORAU’s University Isotope Separator researchers completed their first successful
experience using the laser optical spectroscopy system. REAC/TS and other Medical
Division personnel provided support to authorities investigating an accident in Mexico,
involving a radiation source from an X-ray machine that ended up in a junkyard and
ultimately contaminated people and property both locally and later into the U.S.
1985: The Navy Source Data System Program was established by ORAU and the U.S.
Navy to provide functional user training for the Naval Military Personnel Command.
1986: ORAU’s Medical and Health Sciences Division and REAC/TS personnel provided
assistance to U.S. embassy on matters related to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident
in the Soviet Union. A new Center of Excellence in Human Reliability Studies was
established at ORAU by DOE. The center was establish to administer program in the
assessment of human performance in sensitive or high-risk employment environments.
1987: REAC/TS personnel consulted with Brazilian medical, environmental and health
physics specialists following an accident in Goiania involving human exposure to
radioactive cesium-137. ORAU was designated as a verification contractor for the U.S.
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Department of Energy’s Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program to perform
radiological surveys and other studies at eight sites undergoing remediation.
1988: ORAU took the lead in forming the Marmoset Research Center of Oak Ridge, a
consortium of universities and industries interested in conducting biological research on
marmosets and tamarins, the only animals other than humans to spontaneously
develop colon cancer.
1989: ORAU’s Science/Engineering Education Division—through DOE and other federals
agencies and including 26 federal laboratories—sponsored hundreds of postgraduates,
graduate students, teachers, and high school students in workshops and fellowship
programs.
1990: ORAU assisted Martin Marietta Energy Systems, contractor for the three DOE Oak
Ridge plants, with a Radiation Protection Technician Training Program to increase the
skills of workers who were at risk of losing their jobs due to changing priorities with the
DOE mission.
1991: ORAU offered the first $5,000 Junior Faculty Enhancement grants to faculty
members from ORAU member institutions in the physical sciences, life sciences,
engineering, mathematics and computer science.
1992: The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) was established to
conduct activities on behalf of DOE and other federal agencies under a management
and operating contract with ORAU. Dr. James Drewry was named director of ORISE.
1993: ORAU was assigned to manage the application-processing phases or the National
Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program and Minority Graduate
Research Fellowship Program. ORISE’s Center for Human Reliability Studies Program
expanded to include workplace violence prevention.
1994: The International Alliance for Higher Education was established by an historic
agreement between ORAU and the Association of Russian Institutions of Higher
Education in Moscow to provide students and education leaders in New Independent
States to access the scientific, business, and education resources of the West, and vice
versa.
1995: ORAU’s epidemiology group completed a study that revealed a significant
relationship between death from leukemia and occupational radiation exposure of
workers at DOE’s Savannah River Site. ORAU was chosen as one of 13 Global Learning
and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) teacher training sites in the
country.
1996: ORAU’s Radiation Internal Dose and Information Center celebrated its 25th
anniversary and introduced its World Wide Web page, which would provide access to
information and foster new collaboration among the nuclear medicine community
worldwide.
1997: REAC/TS staff provided emergency response planning, training and support for
the NASA Cassini space probe launch and mission. REAC/TS also received approval to be
a source for distributing a rarely used pharmaceutical called Prussian Blue for the
treatment of individuals contaminated with radiocesium or radiothallium. Ron
Townsend was named president and CEO of ORAU.
1998: ORAU’s University Radioactive Ion Beam Consortium researchers discovered five
new proton-emitting isotopes, the discovery of which was made possible by having one
of only five recoil mass spectrometers in the world. ORISE assisted DOE and other
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federal agencies in implementing the U.S. Domestic Preparedness Program for training
in preparation for a terrorist act involving weapons of mass destruction.
1999: ORAU joined the UT-Battelle team in its successful bid to manage DOE’s Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, effectively positioning ORAU to enhance academic partnerships
and strengthen the laboratory’s science and technology program through broader
university collaboration.
2000: In a competitive selection process, DOE selected ORAU to continue as the
contractor for the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, granting a new fiveyear contract. ORAU partnered with the Dollywood Foundation to offer the Imagination
Library to children from birth through age 5 in East Tennessee communities.
2001: ORAU sponsored students from its member institutions to attend the Annual
Meeting of Nobel Laureates. ORISE worked with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to develop and test information provided to parents about various
vaccinations.
2002: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health awarded ORAU a $70million, 5-year contract to manage a radiation dose reconstruction project for former
nuclear workers.
2003: ORAU teamed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to administer a
Scholarship and Fellowship Program to train students to meet future workforce needs in
support of homeland security. ORAU teamed with Rutgers University and DOE to
establish a Center of Excellence for Radioactive Ion Beam Studies for Stewardship
Science.
2004: ORAU completed construction on its new $8.9-million, 55,000-square-foot office
building and completed renovated the Pollard Auditorium, renamed the Pollard
Technology Conference Center. ORAU pledged $1 million to the Oak Ridge High School
Renovation Project. ORISE was named the 21st DOE site nationwide to receive the
prestigious Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star for its exceptional occupational
health and safety programs.
2005: ORAU won a $1.6 billion contract from the DOE to continue to manage the Oak
Ridge Institute for Science and Education. ORAU won the competitive bid to administer
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Postdoctoral Program and won the
contract to administer DOE’s National Supplement Screening Program, providing free
medical screenings for former DOE workers. ORAU was awarded the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification for an effective environmental
management system.
2006: ORAU’s Radiochemistry Laboratory analyzed samples from nuclear reactors
thought to have inadvertently released tritium into surrounding groundwater.
2007: The Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Laboratory reopened to serve as a national
response resource for calculating radiation doses for persons accidentally exposed to
ionizing radiation. ORAU’s national security experts planned and coordinated DOE’s role
in the Top Officials (TOPOFF) 4 Full-Scale Exercise for counterterrorism.
2008: ORAU was named one of Tennessee’s Best Employers for the second year in a row
by Business Tennessee magazine. ORAU’s University Radioactive Ion Beam Consortium
spectrometer was operated for the first time as a separator at ORNL’s ion beam facility.
ORAU and ORNL announced the jointly sponsored High Performance Computing Grants
Program, providing a monetary award and valuable access to ORNL’s high performance
computing resources and staff.
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2009: ORAU officially opened the new Center for Science Education, a $20 million,
73,000-square-foot, four-story building located in Oak Ridge. The center is the newest
addition to the ORAU main campus since 2004 and houses a technology-rich, interactive
classroom for students and teachers. This building was the first new office building in
the state of Tennessee to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
gold-level certification.