April 30, 2010 — Mark Remec, a senior at Oak Ridge High School, is the winner of the 2010 UT-Battelle scholarship, a four-year scholarship to the University of Tennessee.
The scholarship, awarded annually to a graduating senior with a parent who works at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is designed for top students interested in studying science, engineering or mathematics at UT.
As a high school senior, Remec is already interning in a UT laboratory, specializing in biology and genetics research. He is also a member of the International Relations Club, is fluent in Slovenian and travels to Slovenia and Italy in the summers to visit family. He has a 4.459 grade point average and is a recipient of the AP-Scholar Award.
Remec's academic interest lies particularly with genetics, and he is now a year into his UT internship and laboratory experience.
"Where nowadays complicated drug systems must be used to combat deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer, there will be a day when we will have solved these issues with our understanding of genetics. I strive unceasingly to be a part of the effort to make that day a reality," Remec wrote in his application essay.
He is the son of Igor and Lili Remec of Oak Ridge. Igor works in ORNL's Nuclear Science and Technology Division.
The UT-Battelle scholarship is a competitive award, distributed in $5,000 increments over four years of undergraduate study at UT.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.