Bringing together job candidates and employers to fill specialized STEM positions
Opportunities provided through ORAU ensure you are STEM-career ready! Our clients are also looking for business, communications, administrative and other personnel to provide strong support to their scientific and technical missions.
Since its inception in 2002, the NIOSH Radiation Dose Reconstruction Program has become one of the most important workers’ compensation programs in the United States. ORAU and its partners have interviewed thousands of claimants, researched records and historical documents, and generated searchable databases to reconstruct the dose history to provide more than 42,000 preliminary radiation dose assessments.
Ensuring compliance with federal and/or state radiological exposure guidelines
When the safety of your workers and the public is at stake, accurate and reliable health physics expertise is necessary to demonstrate compliance with federal and/or state regulations and guidelines regarding radiological exposure. ORAU’s highly-qualified health physicists perform site-specific radiation dose and risk assessments, using methods consistent with industry standards, to meet these regulatory requirements.
Amanda Hurley, section manager for ORAU Workforce Solutions, manages a team of recruiters who seek out top talent for some of ORAU’s key clients. Sometimes these positions call for a virtually impossible combination of skills and experience. The recruiting industry term for these candidates is “purple squirrels.”
“A purple squirrel is someone who the company, agency or hiring manager wants, but that person doesn’t really exist or is very difficult to find," Hurley said. "For example, someone who is a social media manager and also a data analyst. Usually a person who is very creative doesn’t have the data analysis skills.”
ORAU's investment in STEM workforce development helping to prepare students for a tech-savvy business environment
In a really hot economy, the overall unemployment rate is low and the rate for STEM-related jobs is even lower. One strategy, of many, is to help develop the future STEM workforce.
During the solar eclipse that spanned the United States in 2017, ORAU computer programmer and small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) pilot Ed Dumas flew an sUAS to measure air temperatures on farmland that was located within the line of totality. Dumas and his team conducted experiments on seven flights, beginning at the start of the partial eclipse, one and a half hours prior to totality, and continuing until one and a half hours after totality.
Twenty-one U.S. students chosen to attend 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
Twenty-one U.S. doctoral student leaders in physics have been chosen to attend the 69th Annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting June 30 to July 5 at the Inselhalle in Lindau, Germany.
ORAU and MITRE to tackle scientific, technical and management issues
ORAU and The MITRE Corporation will work together with ORAU’s consortium of more than 120 universities to apply research and innovation in science, technology and public administration to address government mission challenges and management priorities.
Further Together, the ORAU podcast - Episode 4 now available!
Join your hosts Michael Holtz and Jenna Harpenau as they discuss all things ORAU, through interviews with our experts who provide innovative scientific and technical solutions for our customers. They’ll talk about ORAU’s storied history, how we’re impacting an ever-changing world, as well as our commitment to our community.
ORAU provides innovative scientific and technical solutions to advance science education and workforce development and protect health and the environment. We connect the right people and resources to get things done, and we put the full power of our organization behind every project—both large and small.
Upcoming Events
East Tennessee Workforce Summit 2019
ORAU is proud to be a sponsor of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s East Tennessee Workforce Summit 2019, a one-day event where employers, education providers and policy makers will share their insights and vision into how technology, automation and generational trends will change the very nature of work and alter the skills needed in the modern workforce. The gap between workforce needs and workforce supply will be discussed and strategies to bridge the gap will be identified during the full day of panel discussions and speakers. The conference will be held at Pollard Technology Conference Center, 210 Badger Ave. in Oak Ridge. Click here for more information or to register.
2019 International Society for Atmospheric Research Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) conference
Ed Dumas has been invited to present findings from the testing of two small, unmanned aircraft systems at the ISARRA conference on Monday, July 22. This presentation advances ORAU's position as a thought leader in atmospheric research. Dumas is pilot of small unmanned aircraft systems and computer programmer/analyst the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Air Resources Lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn. ISARRA is a society for researchers around the world using unmanned aircraft to observe and monitor, and to collect measurements related to atmospheric research.
Events Sponsorship Program
The Events Sponsorship Program provides up to $4,000 to support events that involve participants from more than one ORAU institution. Typical events might include visits to an ORAU institution by a renowned speaker, conferences or workshops with a focused theme, or a technology transfer/business plan competition.
As an investment in the future of science education in America, ORAU’s Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards Program rewards ambitious young faculty at our member universities.
The Events Sponsorship Program provides up to $4,000 to support events that involve participants from more than one ORAU institution. Typical events might include visits to an ORAU institution by a renowned speaker, conferences or workshops with a focused theme, or a technology transfer/business plan competition.
Phase 2 projects are defined as innovative research projects that enhance ORAU’s core scientific and technical competencies in partnership with a member university. The project should be achievable in 3 to 6 months, but no longer than 1 year, and is designed to produce "proof-of-concept"-type results leading to a white paper, conference presentation, and/or a technical publication with a clear proposal concept and identification of target funding sources.
