ORAU has a long-standing reputation for quietly working with its government agency partners to advance the nation’s priorities in science, health and education, so we don’t often stop to look at our impact on the United States and the world. This year’s annual report, ORAU Story, 2023, shines a spotlight on the company’s impact on the past and present, and how we could impact the future.
Historically, ORAU’s impact is realized in having trained all generations of health physicists since 1946, ensuring federally funded research is conducted with the utmost integrity, having aided the fight against opioid use disorders, and improving STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) opportunities through workforce development, and much more.
What we know today about radiation treatment, nuclear medicine, immunology and oncology has its roots at ORAU and the cancer hospital we ran from 1950 to 1974, during which 3,500 patients diagnosed with terminal cancer were treated at the former Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies cancer hospital. Similarly, what we know about bone marrow transplant immunology can be traced back to the colony of marmosets that was once housed on ORAU’s campus.
In the present day, ORAU Story, 2023, celebrates ORAU’s corporate culture and our resiliency in the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic and years of economic uncertainty. In fact, 96 percent of employees say they understand how their work supports ORAU’s mission. The annual report also looks at how ORAU continues to invest in projects that advance scientific knowledge and research, as well as how we continue to deliver value to members of our university consortium. Elsewhere, ORAU continues its commitment to initiatives that support the nation’s Minority Serving Institutions and is helping the National Library of Medicine’s All of Us program shape the future of health data.
With an eye toward the future, 2023 saw the launch of the ORAU STEM Accelerator (OSA), an initiative to help strengthen the nation’s scientific talent pool. OSA brings together key stakeholders, like academic institutions, industry, non-profits, labor unions and others, to bridge the gaps between existing talent and future needs in the nuclear science and technology, space manufacturing and critical infrastructure sectors. Also forward looking is ORAU’s work to recruit the next generation of scientific peer reviewers, and the development of products like Emergency Manager 360 to help emergency managers at any agency or organization prepare their employees to respond to disasters.
ORAU Story, 2023, profiles several individual employees and their contributions to the company and the communities in which they live. Features also focus on how ORAU gives back to the communities in which we do business, and how we continue to work in the K-12 STEM space.
“Without a doubt, 2023 was one of the best years in the history of our company,” said Andy Page, ORAU president and CEO. “ORAU Story, 2023, captures the highlights of our year, and I hope will help all of our stakeholders, from our government agency partners to our board members to our employees and beyond, see that ORAU continues to make its mark on our nation and the world.”
ORAU Story, 2023 is available on our website.