October 5, 2007 — Speaking at an Oak Ridge community forum, recently named Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason said new world challenges have opened exciting opportunities for his facility and its many expanding programs.
"Energy has really moved to the forefront of the dialogue nationally and internationally in terms of policy and important decisions that we face," Mason said. "The Department of Energy is actually going to be celebrating its 30th anniversary as a government department next week. That department had its birth in concerns about energy as they existed in the 1970s. We face an even more interesting and complex situation because we have not only concerns due to the cost of oil, but we have the additional wrinkle of impacts in climate, on national security and that's all in the context of global competitiveness."
Mason said the new Department of Energy Bio-Energy Center at Oak Ridge is just one example of how the laboratory is contributing to taking on new challenges.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.