ORAU: Then & Now
Posts by Michael Holtz
Michael Holtz
Michael Holtz loves to tell a great story, and ORAU has a lot of them to tell. From focusing on our history running a cancer hospital to talking about our amazing thought leaders and everything in between, Michael tells the ORAU story on our website, on the Further Together podcast, in our annual report and through earned media.
2026
Building trust, creating change: How one researcher is bringing underserved communities to the table
Youssef Roman, PharmD, Ph.D., received an ORAU Innovation Partnerships Grant to create the Community Advocacy and Research Empowerment (CARE) Coalition in Idaho. The coalition brings organizations together with the mission of involving rural, underserved and minority communities in research to ensure their voices are included.
Black soldier fly larvae could play a major role in addressing challenges from waste management and sustainable agriculture to human health and future space exploration. Research into this unassuming insect demonstrates its versatility.
ORAU convened its first-ever Rural Health Research Innovation Cluster Workshop on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, and brought ORAU University Consortium representatives together to discuss health-related challenges facing rural communities.
ORAU has created a Rural Health Research Innovation Cluster to provide solutions to the country’s rural health challenges, like workforce challenges, access to women’s health care, access to mental health care, and preparedness and resilience.
Meghan Millwood, ORAU President and CEO, began her career at ORAU over 24 years. She was selected by the ORAU Board of Directors in the summer of 2025 and assumed the role of President and CEO in September, when ORAU was amid one of the most challenging years in ORAU’s nearly 80-year history.
ORAU’s K-12 STEM education team offered two programs in June 2026 designed to encourage young people and their teachers to get excited about nuclear science through hands-on demonstrations.
Three Alabama high school welding instructors had their classes interrupted recently because they were the first-ever winners of the Extreme Trades Makeover: Future Welders competition.
Leaders from labor organizations, industry, government, education and community support services convened at the Pathway to Trades Summit to address one of the region’s most urgent challenges: building a skilled workforce capable of meeting the rapidly growing demands of the nuclear sector.
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, an observance that promotes screening starting at age 45 to prevent colorectal cancer or catch cancer early. Here's why I’m passionate about this issue.
According to Lee Riedinger, a retired University of Tennessee physics professor, ORAU has been a vital link in the connection between UT and Oak Ridge since the sunsetting of the Manhattan Project after World War II. In fact, he wrote a book about this history.
Luke Fountain, Ph.D., a third-year NASA Postdoctoral (NPP) Fellow, is determining how astronauts can best grow food in space as part of the space crop production team at Kennedy Space Center.
ORAU launched the Extreme Trades Makeover: Future Welders competition in mid-October to award three Alabama welding teachers with $30,000 in new equipment or upgrades for their workshops or classrooms.
While there has been a lot of research on the benefits of peer-to-peer support for women facing cancer, that has not been the case with men. ORAU stepped into this research gap and funded a one-year pilot study looking at peer support intervention for men facing cancer.
Explore how social listening reveals public perceptions of ultra-processed foods and their impact on health. Learn how ORAU experts analyze online conversations to shape effective health communication strategies and drive change toward healthier eating habits.
Discover how ORAU Workforce Solutions leverages AI to enhance recruitment while maintaining the human touch. Chelsea Hill shares insights on hiring trends, specialized STEM talent and career transitions in a rapidly evolving job market.
ORAU is helping researchers working with genomics, proteomics, clinical data and structural data accelerate discoveries by training them to use the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE). ORAU won an NIH contract to create a state-of-the-art virtual training center for this very purpose.
ORAU-Directed Research and Development project focuses on using AI to speed up sample processing to identify chromosomal abnormalities and calculating the total dose of radiation exposure in patients treated for cancer.
Amid the nation’s critical shortage of healthcare workers, ORAU is leveraging its expertise and providing targeted support to help bolster the healthcare workforce in the region.
ORAU, a leader in workforce capacity building since its founding almost 80 years ago, is leading the charge to build the nuclear energy workforce sector locally, regionally and across the country.
ORAU manages the NASA Postdoctoral Program, and several of the fellows are supporting the Artemis missions to the moon and beyond.
Discover how ORAU’s CAD Design and 3D Printing Mini-Academy empowered high school students to build self-confidence and master STEM skills like computer-aided design and 3D printing. Led by Kristy Hutson, Ed.D., this hands-on workshop encouraged creativity, problem-solving, and ownership of the engineering process.
Long-time cancer advocate becomes cancer researcher thanks to the support of ORAU’s Research and University Partnerships Office.
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and one ORAU employee is actively working to raise awareness about prevention and early detection.
The Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge has opened an exhibit introducing the life and legacy of Alvin Weinberg, visionary nuclear physicist, who was once director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was the founder of the Institute for Energy Analysis at ORAU.