Craig Harston served as founder and general manager of Computer Applications Services, founded in 1986 and incorporated as Computer Application Systems, Inc., in 1990. Under Dr. Harston's direction, CASI has developed robots to climb towers and has commercialized NASA's "Capaciflector." Dr. Harston has worked in the data processing/computer science field since 1981, when he designed and developed medical information systems at North Carolina Baptist Hospital. He also served as a computer consultant, software engineer and decision support analyst at General Electric. He previously was a neuroscientist at the medical schools of Tulane University and East Tennessee State University.
Dr. Harston has been involved with neural network technology since 1987 and has developed several neural networks. He has lectured for many organizations, including the University of Tennessee, UT Space Institute, George Mason University, NASA, and the Department of Justice. He is the co-author of the Handbook of Neural Computing Applications. He completed his graduate studies at Tulane University.
U.S. representative Vernon J. Ehlers was first elected to the 103rd Congress in December 1993 in a special election and was sworn into office on January 25, 1994, representing the 3rd District in Michigan (centered in Grand Rapids). He was re-elected to the 104th Congress November 8, 1994, and was sworn into office for his first full term on January 4.
Representative Ehlers is the first physicist elected to Congress. He is the vice chairman of the Science Committee and serves as vice chairman of the House Oversight Committee. He retained his seat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and is responsible for computer technology issues.
Representative Ehlers began a full-time career in public office in 1983 when he was elected to the State House of Representatives. He has served as the chairman of the National Conference of State Legislatures' Environment committee and as a member of the EPA Clear Air Act Advisory Committee. He served as a science adviser to then- Congressman Gerald Ford and also was appointed to INTERSET, a science advisory committee formed by then-President George Bush. He holds an undergraduate degree in physics and a doctoral degree in nuclear physics from the University at California at Berkeley.
Christine Ervin was confirmed in November 1993 as Assistant Secretary for energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy. She is responsible for more than $1 billion annually in federal programs to develop and promote the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies--in the U.S. and in foreign markets.
Prior to her appointment by President Clinton, Ms. Ervin was director of the Oregon Department of Energy, a position that made her chief energy adviser to the Governor of Oregon and the Oregon Legislature. In addition to leading Oregon's energy programs, she chaired a governor's multi- agency task force on transportation, land-use, air quality, and energy. She has served as project director for the World Wildlife Fund and the Conservation Foundation in Washington, D.C., and has specialized in policy research on pollution prevention, product and packaging design and corporate environmental policy.
As acting vice president for the Technical Operations Organization, Mr. Cuddy has responsibilities entailing engineering services for all programs, computing and telecommunications services for corporate information management, and program management for the Work for Others activities. He also serves as deputy director of Technical Operations and as Corporate Information Officer.
His previous positions with the company have included special advisor to the president; deputy manager of the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant; assistant Y- 12 Plant manager for Quality/Administration; acting plant manager for the Oak Ridge K-25 Site; director, Quality and Productivity Programs; manager, Computer-Integrated Manufacturing Program; Employee Relations Division manager; Mechanical Engineering Department superintendent; Maintenance Department superintendent; and Engineering Mechanics Department manager. He joined the Oak Ridge organization in 1967 as a mechanical design engineer. Mr. Cuddy, who is a Registered Professional Engineer, is a member of the Board of Directors for Technology 2020. He holds memberships in the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the National Management Association. He received the B.S. and M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee.
Joe Ferguson is president of Advanced Vehicle Systems Inc., a Chattanooga company that manufactures electric buses. AVS was successful in winning a competitive bid to manufacture electric buses for CARTA, and is now producing buses for customers across the country.
Mr. Ferguson has served as a senior manager in manufacturing, sales and general management functions with international corporations. He spent two years as a business consultant in the areas of sales, manufacturing, engineering and finance.
Michael Peters was the business manager for the start-up of the Raytheon Bristol Engineering Laboratory established to support the Navy with the Standard Missile Program. He has been responsible for developing and promoting Raytheon's local, state and federal legislative agenda for transportation and military programs.
Mr. Peters was responsible for securing funding for the Johnson City Medical-Technology Corridor Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems Operations Test Project, which will demonstrate a parking management system and improve traffic congestion within the Corridor. He has served as vice-chairman for the Tennessee Transportation Technology Coalition and has helped to secure transportation research and development projects for the coalition's members, which includes the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee Department of Transportation in partnership with Raytheon.
Lee Riedinger is a professor of Physics at the University of Tennessee. His current research in experimental nuclear physics involves studies of high-spin properties of nuclei produced in heavy-ion induced reactions, using large arrays of gamma-ray detectors. He has an undergraduate degree in physics from Thomas More College and a doctorate in physics from Vanderbilt University.
Professor Riedinger is a member of the American Physical Society and Sigma Xi. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Atomic Energy Commission and Oak Ridge Associated Universities. In 1983 he received the Chancellor's Research Scholar's Award from the University of Tennessee, and in 1985 he was named an honorary professor at Lanzhou University in China.
Larry J. Peck is senior vice president for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). He manages the Technology Solutions Sector, which accounts for $1.3 million of the corporation's total annual revenues of $1.9 billion and is the home SAIC's high-technology information systems work. The Technology Solutions Sector serves a wide variety of government agencies in numerous locations, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Commerce, the Internal Revenue Service and NASA.
Mr. Peck is on the board of directors for both the East Tennessee Economic Development Group and the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. He has a master's degree in Management Science and Operations Research from George Washington University. His undergraduate degree was taken at Concord College in mathematics and physics.
Joe Coors Jr. is president of ACX Technologies Inc., an independent Fortune-500 sized company launched by Adolph Coors Company in 1992. ACX Technologies includes Graphic Packaging Corporation, Coors Ceramics Company and Golden Aluminum Company, and a number of technology-based developmental businesses grouped together under Golden Technologies Company.
Mr. Coors is a trustee of the Adolph Coors Company; chairman and CEO of Coors Ceramics Company; chairman, president and CEO of Golden Aluminum Company; and chairman of United States Advanced Ceramics Association. He holds a degree in applied mathematics from North Carolina State University.
Dave Beck joined DOE's facilities in Oak Ridge in 1977, serving as a process development engineer, production supervisor, quality engineer and project engineer at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. In 1984, he was named product definition manager for the Trident II Weapons Program at Y-12, and later served as program manager and Y-12 liaison to Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory; as quality manager of the Y-12 Plant, overseeing quality assurance activities for the facility; and as deputy manager of Technology Services, the organization responsible for technology transfer and business development activities at Y-12. He is the recipient of three U.S. patents in materials technology.