Participant Profiles

Faculty members, undergraduates, graduate students, and recent graduates in research participation programs administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) experience first-hand the excitement and motivation of performing world-class science. Enjoy some of their stories and see how their involvement has helped shape their futures and professional goals.

Karen White
White used a global positioning system (GPS) to conduct surveys near an Army base in Alabama. She studied the impact of military activities on the environment, including endangered species. White's research was done as part of the U.S. Army Environmental Command's Environmental Management Participant Program.

Paul Emanovsky
Former ORISE participant and Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command/Central Identification Laboratory (JPAC-CIL) anthropologist, Paul Emanovsky examined forensic evidence to identify one of 1,100 sets of remains housed at the JPAC/CIL laboratory in Hawaii. Emanovsky played a key role in the identification of the missing 1942 airman found in the Sierra Nevada.

Leigh Ann Walker
As a military spouse, Walker lived at three different installations in four years. ORISE was able to find her an appointment at each location, helping her become a well-rounded environmental professional who ultimately landed a job at Dynamic as a Compliance Specialist for the Fort Bragg Environmental Compliance Branch.

Kriston McGary
While assigned to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, McGary participated on a research team that applied proteomics to the problem of poisoning by mustard gas. The research led to remarkable new insights into how to potentially treat mustard and added to the basic body of knowledge of skin inflammation.

Damon Burman
A recipient of the Black Engineer of the Year Technology Award in 2003, Burman was assigned to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense. He assisted in several sophisticated biomagnetic resonance experiments. Also through Burman’s efforts, a new methodology that allows simultaneous measurement of inter-related biomarkers of chemical warfare agent (CWA) cytotoxicity was introduced.