Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE)

High school students from across the state faced off in East Tennessee Feb. 22, 2025, putting their wits to the test. The Tennessee Science Bowl is a fast-paced academic competition that pits teams of four students against each other in a quiz-show-style contest. The event serves all public, private and homeschool students in 9th – 12th grades.

ORISE is progressively developing digital dashboards for the individual years of data available in the Beryllium-Associated Worker Registry (BAWR). BAWR was created through DOE regulation 10 CFR 850–Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program—and maintains data related to the health, exposure, and work histories for current DOE or contractor employees who are exposed or potentially exposed to beryllium in their current or past work activities at a DOE site.

Meagan Roberts, MPH, is a former ORISE participant of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Minority Serving Institutions Internship Program (NNSA-MSIIP). Her internship focused on nuclear incident response policy and capacity building for nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness.

ORISE is at the forefront of helping educate the U.S. scientific workforce of the future. Educators play a key role in this efforts. In this episode host Michael Holtz and special co-host Zachary Minchow-Proffitt have a conversation with two Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellows about the role of educators in helping their students see themselves pursuing STEM careers. Victoria Thomson, an AEF Fellow at USGS, and Jessica Fries-Gaither, an AEF Fellow at the Library of Congress, discuss barriers that students may face in expanding their interest in STEM and the pursuit of careers in STEM, and what they have done as educators to make their classrooms spaces where students gain self-confidence in STEM subjects.