Episodes

Kelly Luis, Ph.D., is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Water and Ecosystems Group. A native of Hawaii, Luis studies what the color of water can tell us about the health of aquatic ecosystems. During her conversation with host Michael Holtz, Luis talks about the trajectory of her career, how she is contributing to science at NASA, obstacles she's overcome to get to where she is, and so much more. To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program, visit https://n...

As Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month 2024 comes to a close, Further Together host Michael Holtz, a 12-year survivor of stage IIIB colorectal cancer, talks to Eric Mayer and Jessica Etheridge, CEO and director of marketing and branding, respectively, for Knoxville-based New Day Diagnostics. This March, New Day launched ColoHealth, a screening blood test for people at average risk of developing colorectal cancer. They talk about the importance of prevention and early detection, the rise in colorec...

While the idea of recognizing women in STEM has been a more recent phenomenon, ORAU has long included women in its scientific enterprise. In this episode, Amber Davis and Matthew Underwood introduce host Michael Holtz to three women among the many who have made history at ORAU. Meet Evelyn Watson, Ann Sipe and Helen Vodopick, three women who made significant contributions to work at the Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies (the original name of ORAU). Their backstories are fascinating, and th...

Dr. Nicola "Nicky" Fox, is the associate administrator for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, which essentially means she is the head of science for NASA. Her directorate is responsible for more than 150 missions that are currently in space or in development. Further Together hosts Michael Holtz and Matthew Underwood talk to Fox about the importance of her role, the trajectory of her career, how she became interested in science and how the desire to work for NASA brought her from England to t...

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Colorectal cancer is the #1 cancer killer of men under age 50 and #2 of women under age 50. In this episode of Further Together, Michael Holtz welcomes his best friend, Ryan Vieth, as guest co-host. Ryan is in active treatment for stage IV colorectal cancer; Michael is a 12-year survivor of stage III colorectal cancer. They met when they were named 2023 Ambassadors for Fight Colorectal Cancer, a leading advocacy organization dedicated to the fight agai...

More than 18 million people in the United States are cancer survivors, and survivors are living longer than ever before. At the same time, the health impacts and side effects of cancer treatment can show up many years after treatment has ended. The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship advocates for quality cancer care for all people touched by cancer. In this episode of the Further Together podcast, Michael Holtz and Matthew Underwood talk to Shelley Fuld Nasso, CEO of NCCS. Full disclosur...

In this episode of Further Together: The ORAU Podcast, Ken Tobin, chief research and university partnerships officer, and Cathy Fore, senior director of university partnerships, look ahead to the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions. In conversation with Michael Holtz and Matthew Underwood, Tobin and Fore talk about the meeting's theme -- Redefining the Next Generation STEM Enterprise -- as well as the slate of keynote speakers and panelists. The annual meeting is a grea...

Amanda Lopez is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow in the Water and Systems Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research background is in coastal geoscience world and she is currently studying the impact of wildfires on the land-sea interface. In this episode of Further Together, Lopez tells host Michael Holtz that she has wanted to be a scientist for as far back as she can remember. Her childhood included a love of Bill Nye the Science Guy and Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series. Lopez says no...

Taylor Hutchison, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow working on the James Webb Space Telescope, says her research focus is on distant galaxies --some of the first galaxies ever found in the early universe -- which give us a view toward understanding the history of the universe. In this episode of Further Together, host Michael Holtz asks Hutchison about her research emphasis, how she got to be a NASA NPP Fellow, what led her to a career in the sciences and so much more. To learn more about the NASA NPP ...

Trevor Maxwell was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer in March 2018. During his treatment journey he was dismayed to learn that support services specifically geared to men are sorely lacking, so he set out to change that. In 2019, he launched Man Up to Cancer, an organization that encourages men facing all forms of cancer to avoid isolation and connect with each other. Men find connection in The Howling Place, a private Facebook group, in 40-plus chapters across North America and around t...

Sanah Baig is the Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she leads the management of the more than $4 billion USDA Science enterprise responsible for ensuring U.S. agriculture’s success through the advancement of science, technology, and innovation. Deputy Under Secretary Baig was a keynote speaker at ORAU's 2023 Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions, which brings together members of our university consortium ...

ORAU and Villanova University teamed up to offer a workshop during which participants received certification in Basic Industry Bioprocessing Techniques. In this episode of Further Together, host Michael Holtz talks with Rosalind Wynn, associate professor in the Villanova Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Tracie Curtright, ORAU project manager, about the Innovation Partnership Program that funded the workshop. The certification earned by workshop participants is recognized by...

What is the optimal age to teach climate change science to young people? Chris Nelson, Ed.D., project manager, and Kristin Hurst, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Resources at Southern Illinois University, teamed up on an ORAU-Directed Research and Development project to study when it is best to teach young people about climate change science. They worked under the hypothesis that high school students have more developed cultural and ideological viewpoi...

Reinier Janssen is a staff scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Host Michael Holtz had the opportunity to talk to Janssen toward the end of his NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship, where he worked on novel instrumentation based on superconducting detectors. During this conversation, Holtz and Janssen discuss how he developed his interest in science, what the NASA NPP Fellowship has meant to his career, what drives him, and what happens next. To learn more about the NASA NPP, visit h...

Host Michael Holtz and Brenda Blunt, ORAU senior director of health policy, had the opportunity to participate in the StoryCorps Project while attending the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Health Equity Conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. Listeners may be familiar with StoryCorps from interviews that air on National Public Radio. During this interview, Holtz and Blunt talk about health equity through their experiences in and around the healthcare system and as patients w...

Further Together host Michael Holtz gets the tables turned on him and becomes the interviewee in this episode. Holtz received a Thought Leadership Research Award through the ORAU Research and University Partnerships Office to write a white paper that makes recommendations for research projects based on ORAU's capabilities and the federal government's cancer research priorities. Matthew Underwood, communications and marketing specialist, and Brenda Blunt, senior health policy director, talk with ...

Laura Fackrell is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow who is looking ahead to the potential to humans living on the moon. Her research focuses on the role of nitrogen in lunar habitats, particularly how nitrogen is affected by plants and microbes in the soil or growth medium. Nitrogen is a key element in plant growth, so her research will also have an impact on creating better and more sustainable agriculture here on earth. In this conversation with host Michael Holtz, Fackrell talks about her ca...

The United States is falling behind in STEM proficiency. Our country faces a great challenge in improving the capability and capacity of the U.S. STEM workforce in a globally competitive environment. ORAU has created the STEM Accelerator to face this challenge head on. In this episode, Michael Holtz talk to Liv Blackmon, director of the ORAU STEM Accelerator, about the mission, vision and goals of this critical initiative, why focusing on the nuclear energy industry is the first priority for the...

Daniel Watters, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is a global storm chaser. Fortunately, he can chase storms from the comfort of being behind a computer screen. Watters studies global precipitation using satellites, specifically focused on comparing data between satellites and RADAR systems. Daniel, who is from England, talks to host Michael Holtz about cultural adjustments to life in Huntsville, how he cultivated his interest in science, ...

Conner Ballew is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research area is in Meta Optics, which develops new technologies to aid future agency missions. The end goal of his research is to miniaturize optical elements, which reduces size and power requirements for space applications. Ballew is a native of Everett, Washington, discusses how he became interested in science, how his career and scientific interests have developed and what comes next for his career. To learn...

ORAU's annual giving campaign is underway. Host Michael Holtz's yearly conversation with Naomi Asher, executive director of United Way of Anderson County, which serves Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Scott Counties. Naomi invited two partner organizations, Katie Burnette from the YWCA of Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley. and David Allred from Oak Ridge Periodic Tables, to discuss the ways they serve the community together. We discuss how UWAC and its partner agencies fill in the gaps in big and...

We continue our focus on some of the community organizations and events ORAU supports with this conversation about the Thompson Cancer Survival Center Race Against Cancer. The Race, now in its 29th year, races funds for the patients and their families treated at Thompson Cancer Survivor Center. Since it's inception, the race has raised more than $7.4 million for cancer education and support in East Tennessee. Host Michael Holtz, who was treated at Thompson and served as race chair twice, talks t...

As a company, ORAU loves to support the communities in which we do business. We regularly support community events like the Secret City Half Marathon and 5K, an annual event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, In this episode, host Michael Holtz talks to Bryan Campbell, a colleague and fellow cancer survivor, who is passionate about events like the Secret City Half and others. We talk about the race, Bryan's love for running, his cancer journey and so much more. To register for the Secret City Half Maratho...

Claudia Alvarez Carreno is a third-year NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow who is a medical doctor by training and then discovered that she really enjoys basic science. She finished medical school then pursued a doctoral degree in biological sciences. Her research at NASA focuses on the origins of life. She says you can tell a lot about the history of humanity by studying the molecules of humans. Alvarez Carreno studies proteins -- in particular she studies patterns of ribosomal proteins across al...