Recent News

  • Building’s CRI Tours Clayton Homes’ Appalachia Plant 

    Building’s CRI Tours Clayton Homes’ Appalachia Plant 

    Collaboration sparked U.S. innovation when Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, leadership and research staff representing the Advanced Manufacturing for Affordable Building Construction Convergent Research Initiative (CRI) toured the Clayton Appalachia plant in Andersonville recently to explore opportunities to partner with the nation’s largest builder of modern, manufactured and modular homes. Read More >

  • Zheng publishes paper addressing growing environmental challenges of nylon waste

    Zheng publishes paper addressing growing environmental challenges of nylon waste

    Bredesen Center alumna Jackie Zheng recently published a paper titled “Tailored glycolysis of Nylon 6 to enable upcycling into high-strength adhesives” in Cell Reports Physical Science, addressing the growing environmental challenge of nylon waste. Zheng’s research demonstrates a method to break down nylon waste into smaller chemical building blocks that retain some of the nylon’s useful properties. These Read More >

  • STEMOVATE Launches in 22 Tennessee Counties

    STEMOVATE Launches in 22 Tennessee Counties

    Cookeville, Tenn. (Nov. 21, 2025) — Regional leaders joined sixth graders at Algood Middle School today to launch STEMOVATE: Powering Tennessee’s Future Innovators, a new program delivering hands-on science, technology, engineering and math activities to classrooms in 22 counties across Tennessee. The University of Tennessee–Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII) is partnering with Tennessee 4-H, the Oak Read More >

  • Brynn Voy Named Interim Executive Director of UT–ORII

    Brynn Voy Named Interim Executive Director of UT–ORII

    The University of Tennessee–Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT–ORII) Executive Council has named Brynn Voy interim executive director, effective upon the departure of Executive Director David Sholl in December. Sholl is leaving UT-ORII to become executive vice president for research at Rice University. Voy will continue to serve as UT–ORII’s director of education and director of Read More >

Media Contact

Bridget Waller
Director of Communications, UT-ORII
bwaller5@tennessee.edu
Phone:  865-466-2649