If you go
What: Engineers Week Awards Banquet
Details: Keynote Dr. Tom Zacharia, laboratory director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
When: 6-8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23
Where: DoubleTree by Hilton, 407 Chestnut St.
Admission: $45 per person, or $450 table for eight; email Lu-lu.Copeland@ChattanoogaState.edu.
Dr. Tom Zacharia joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1987 as a researcher. He spent the next 25 years at the lab in Northeast Tennessee, climbing the ranks and driving research across the spectrum.
Eventually he was named deputy lab director for science and technology with responsibilities that included the development of clean energy from physics, biology and chemistry and working on classified activities for national security programs, oh, and a nuclear reactor.
Then he left.
In 2012, he took the job as executive vice president of the Qatar Foundation, helping to develop the Qatar Science and Technology Park, a high-level research and development laboratory in the Middle Eastern country. While heading the research park, 2 million square feet of scientific infrastructure was built, creating a hub that now hosts 40 international companies.
Then he came back.
In 2015, he returned to Oak Ridge and to take over his former position as deputy lab directory, a position that had not been filled since his departure. Last July, he was named as lab director for Oak Ridge and now is responsible for all of the lab’s workings plus its $1.4 billion annual budget.
Zacharia holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India, an master’s in materials science from the University of Mississippi, and a Ph.D. in engineering science from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. He holds two U.S. patents and is author or co-author of more than 100 publications on high-performance computing for manufacturing processes.
