Further Together the ORAU Podcast

Recent Episodes

Episode 85: Finding the links between COVID-19 health risk disparities and air pollutant exposures

Posted March 30, 2022 •

How did so-called lockdown or stay-at-home orders designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus impact air pollutant concentrations, particularly in underserved communities? That's the question Davyda Hammond, Ph.D., ORAU environmental engineer, and researchers at the University of Houston Air Quality Forecasting and Modeling Lab are working to answer. They are investigating and characterizing the human health risk disparities due to air pollutant exposures prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hammond's research was funded through the ORAU-Directed Research and Development program. In this episode of Further Together, Hammond discusses her research in-depth and talks about next steps for her and the research team.

Episode 84: How to rock your virtual ISO 9000 audit: A conversation with Kristy Kistner

Posted March 23, 2022 • 00:20:48

Around here, Kristy Kistner is ORAU's quality queen. As the director of performance excellence, she, among other duties, oversees maintenance of ORAU’s ISO 9001:2015 registration, compliance with the U.S. Department of Energy quality assurance requirements, and conduct of assessments and process improvement initiatives. Next week, she will be speaking during the American Quality Institute's ISO 9000 and Audits World Conference, where she will discuss "How to Rock Your Virtual ISO 9000 Audit" based on her experience leading ORAU through virtual audits during the pandemic. No surprise, we rocked it! Help us improve the Further Together podcast. Take our survey: https://surveys.blubrry.com/oraufurthertogether

Episode 83: ORISE Marks 30th Anniversary: A Conversation with Jim Vosburg

Posted March 9, 2022 • 00:38:24

This episode of Further Together is an ORISE Featurecast, wherein host Michael Holtz talks with Dr. Jim Vosburg, director of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. They talk about the great work ORISE does across five performance areas and plans in progress to mark ORISE's 30 anniversary.

Episode 82: ORAU Research in Progress: Developing Computer Simulations for Rural Disaster Preparedness

Posted February 23, 2022 • 00:25:26

ORAU and the University of Tennessee have partnered on a research project to develop computer simulations for rural disaster preparedness. In this episode we talk to lead researchers Julie Crumly, Ph.D., ORAU research and evaluation specialist and senior scientist, and Tom Berg, Ph.D., from the University of Tennessee, who has a joint appointment to the College of Nursing and the College of Engineering and Industrial and Systems Engineering. They talk about the challenges of building a model that works for every rural community and what they have learned so far. Tune in for a very engaging conversation.

Episode 81: Meet Scott Miller, ORAU Program Director for the NASA NPP Program

Posted February 16, 2022 • 00:30:23

ORAU assumed management of the $129.7 million NASA Postdoctoral Program at the end of January 2022. In this episode of Further Together, host Michael Holtz talks with Scott Miller, ORAU Program Director for the program. What is the NPP program, why is it important to the NASA enterprise, and how can early and senior career scientists be part of this important research program? Tune in for details, and check out the NASA Postdoc Program website here: https://npp.orau.org/