Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education

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Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education

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The Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education is doctoral program focused on science and engineering research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education unites resources and capabilities from the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to promote advanced research and to provide innovative solutions to global challenges in energy science and data science. The Bredesen Center offers two interdisciplinary PhD programs through the University of Tennessee, Knoxville: Energy Science & Engineering and Data Science & Engineering. Each program's curriculum includes knowledge breadth studies in Policy, Entrepreneurship, and/or Outreach that provide students with experience to learn to engage and apply their science in fields outside of the lab and impact our culture in countless ways.

09/14/2026

Congratulations to Sobhan Bahrami Zadegan, a Bredesen Center Genome Science & Technology student, for receiving the 2026 Robert and Karen Miller Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the UT Institute of Agriculture!

Zadegan works in the Department of Plant Sciences, under the supervision of Tarek Hewezi, professor of Plant Molecular Biology. His research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying plant-pathogen interactions. He uses functional genomics, molecular biology, genome editing, and computational approaches to understand how plants respond to nematode infection and to identify genes and regulatory mechanisms involved in plant resistance.

He was presented with the award at UTIA’s annual Toast to Success and Fall Welcome Back Celebration for his dedication as a graduate research assistant and for playing a vital role in advancing UTIA’s mission.

Photo courtesy of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.

09/08/2026

Bredesen Center Community Celebrates 2026 R&D 100 Winners

The Bredesen Center is proud to celebrate six members of our community who contributed to R&D 100 Award-winning research in 2026 — including the 2026 R&D 100 Researcher of the Year.

The annual R&D 100 Awards recognize 100 of the world’s most significant new technologies. This year’s Bredesen Center honorees include faculty, mentors, an advisory committee member and a PhD student whose work spans energy, advanced manufacturing, materials, critical infrastructure and more.

Congratulations to:

Parans Paranthaman — ORNL distinguished corporate fellow and Bredesen Center professor and graduate adviser — named the 2026 R&D 100 Researcher of the Year

Yilu Liu — UT–ORNL Governor’s Chair for Power Grids and Bredesen Center faculty member — part of the award-winning Pulsar-Based Timing System team and now a six-time R&D 100 winner in seven years

Peter Fuhr, PhD — retired ORNL distinguished scientist and Bredesen Center Advisory Committee member — also part of the award-winning Pulsar-Based Timing System team

Umesh Marathe — UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute's assistant professor and Bredesen Center faculty member — contributed to two award-winning technologies, the Recycled Next Generation Composite Oven (ReNGCO) and Multiplexing Extrusion System (MExS)

Alex Ivanov — University of Tennessee, Knoxville's assistant professor of nuclear engineering and Bredesen Center mentor — contributed to the award-winning Electrochemical CO2 Graphitization (ECOG) technology

William Doktycz — Bredesen Center Energy Science and Engineering PhD student — contributed to the award-winning Affordable Efficient Thermoelectric Dishwasher with Enhanced Drying

We also congratulate Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a record-setting 22 R&D 100 Awards — the most in its history!

From established research leaders to the next generation of scientists and engineers, we’re proud to see the Bredesen Center community contributing to innovations recognized among the world’s best.

Read more about our 2026 R&D 100 winners: https://utorii.com/congratulations-2026-rd-100-awardees/

09/03/2026

Franklyn Ifegbo, a fourth-year student in Energy Science and Engineering, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) travel fund to attend the North American Manufacturing Research Conference and the ASME International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference. The conference is a premier forum for advanced manufacturing research.

Ifegbo won the award with his project on the development of sustainable composites, specifically natural fiber polymer composites. His project involves transforming inherently discontinuous natural fibers into a mechanically continuous tow configuration. The developed material, the first of its kind, is designed to deliver performance and process benefits and to advance NFPCs.

09/01/2026

Bredesen Center’s Energy Science and Engineering student Joslin Joshy’s “Harnessing biomass-derived reinforcements for sustainable flame-resistant composite” article was published in the June 2026 edition of Materials Today Communications. UT-ORII’s Assistant Research Professor Umesh Marathe and ORNL’s R&D Staff Scientist Cait Clarkson were corresponding authors on the article.

The article covers their study that tested whether two wood-industry by-products can work together to make plastic composites harder to burn. Wood fiber, sold commercially as TimberFill and treated with a small amount of boric acid, was formed into non-woven mats through a process akin to paper making. This was then molded with epoxy resin. Biochar, a charcoal-like material derived from wood waste, was added to the resin as an additive, influencing the composite’s performance properties.

The best combination tested used eight percent biochar and ten percent wood fiber with Epoxy. Compared with neat epoxy, this material burned about seventeen percent more slowly, was roughly a third stiffer, and stayed stable at slightly higher temperatures before softening. It also transferred heat about nine percent better. That helps because heat spreads out rather than building up in one spot, which lowers the chance of the material catching fire.

Boric acid provided a second softening effect. When heated, the material with ten percent wood fiber added expanded more than twice as much as neat epoxy. This suggests the resin molecules moved more freely, weakening the bonds between the resin and the fiber. Overall, these results demonstrate that wood industry by-products can be transformed into valuable composite ingredients. This offers an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative without compromising performance.

Read the full article here -https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352492826011657

08/31/2026

Third-year Energy Science and Engineering student Jihye Choi received a poster award from the North American Thermal Analysis (NATA) Symposium for her poster, Harnessing Transient and Self-healable Adhesion in Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives.

Choi’s research addresses a long-standing challenge in adhesive science. Pressure-sensitive adhesives are used in tapes, labels, medical patches, and protective films, and bond under light pressure without heat, solvents, or curing. However, these materials have historically faced an inherent trade-off: adhesives strong enough to hold reliably tend to leave residue upon removal, whereas cleanly removable adhesives typically sacrifice bonding strength.

Through this research, Choi approached the problem through an unconventional molecular architecture. By combining bottlebrush polymers, whose densely grafted side chains impart intrinsic softness and conformability, with reversible hydrogen bonding and a glassy comonomer, the developed adhesives bond strongly during use, release cleanly upon removal, and recover their performance after damage. Notably, the material is prepared through a simple one-step synthesis, which is a significant advantage for scalability.

Choi’s work establishes a promising design principle for sustainable, reusable adhesives with potential applications ranging from recyclable packaging to skin-mounted wearable devices.

The NATA Symposium, held at the beginning of August at Georgia Tech, promotes the advancement and understanding of thermal analysis, rheology, and materials characterization.

UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

08/10/2026

The UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute’s Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education unites the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory resources and capabilities for its three doctoral degrees at University of Tennessee, Knoxville:

💻 Data Science and Engineering
💡 Energy Science and Engineering
🧬 Genome Science and Technology

Through this unique partnership, students are mentored by world-renowned scientists in their fields and conduct their own groundbreaking research.

Applications are now open, visit https://bredesencenter.utk.edu/apply/ to get started!

07/22/2026

Want to learn more about our programs? Join one of our upcoming Bredesen Center Q&A sessions! These hour-long video conferences are your chance to chat with our staff and get all your questions answered.

Program Overviews
Finding an Advisor
Application Checklist and Requirements
Timeline and Next Steps

Select a date to sign-up now - https://bredesencenter.utk.edu/connect/

04/17/2026

Congratulations to Emma Foley on being named a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Volunteer of Distinction!

Foley, who graduated from our Data Science and Engineering program in the summer of 2025, researched the use of Gaussian processes for power grid data analysis.

In collaboration with Peter Fuhr at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Grid Communications and Security Group, Foley’s interpretable analysis supports grid operations, which are integral to our communication and emergency services and affect nearly all aspects of our daily lives.

“It is so rewarding to be recognized for years of hard work,” says Foley. “My time at UT was so valuable to my future career and my aspirations as a researcher. I am grateful to my advisor, Dr. Fuhr, my group at ORNL and my family for their support. The Bredesen Center staff are so helpful not only in advising and guiding us through program requirements, but also for their genuine interest in our goals.”

UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute

04/16/2026

Three outstanding students from the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute’s Bredesen Center have been selected for the 2026 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program—one of the nation’s most prestigious honors for graduate researchers.

Congratulations to:
🔸 Daniel Perkins, Data Science and Engineering
🔸 Ella Williams, Energy Science and Engineering
🔸 David Levy, Energy Science and Engineering

The Bredesen Center’s unique UT–ORNL model gives students the opportunity to work side by side with leading researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory—combining world-class academic training with access to one of the nation’s premier national labs.

That approach is reflected in the work of this year’s fellows, whose research spans AI-driven emergency response, advanced energy storage and quantum sensing—areas critical to our nation’s future.

We’re proud to see Bredesen Center students recognized at the national level and excited for the impact they will continue to make.

04/15/2026

At the Bredesen Center, we are privileged to have professors from across campus teaching and mentoring our doctoral students.

Chad Duty, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Dustin Gilmer, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, have received the Outstanding Graduate Professor and Outstanding Graduate Research Mentor awards.

Presented by the Graduate Student Senate, the Outstanding Graduate Professor award recognizes faculty members who have shown outstanding commitment to teaching graduate and professional students, and the Outstanding Graduate Research Mentor award recognizes faculty members who have shown outstanding commitment to mentoring graduate and professional students in their research endeavors.

Congratulations!

Address

821 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, TN
37996

Website

http://bredesencenter.utk.edu/

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