February 27, 2009 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Will Minter has been presented with a 2009 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Corporate Promotion of Higher Education.
Minter, director of ORNL's Asset Management and Small Business Programs Division, received the award Monday in a ceremony at the Black Engineer of the Year Award annual conference in Baltimore.
The honor, now in its 23rd year, is presented annually by Lockheed Martin Corporation, the Council of the Engineering Deans of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology Magazine.
Minter was recognized for promotion of higher education through ORNL's Science Education HBCU-Minority Institution program.
In 2007, he spearheaded the annual Day of Science event, which drew more than 1,200 students and faculty from 125 colleges and universities to ORNL for one of the largest Department of Energy science education events ever held.
In 2008, Minter headed up inaugural Science and Energy Research Challenge, also known as SERCh, which is part of DOE's ongoing educational outreach efforts, to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM areas - science, technology, engineering and math.
Minter also lead establishment of ORNL mentor-prot?g? agreements with Morehouse College and Jackson State University; helped arrange summer study programs for students and faculty at ORNL; and played a major role in the lab's awarding subcontracts to 26 black colleges since 1999.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.