As their first work week at ORNL ended, Lee Riedinger gave ORNL's summer students a "virtual tour" of the Lab during the first seminar of this summer's student seminar series on June 6. The deputy director for Science and Technology opened his lecture with a timely reference to that weekends' Kenny Chesney concert, mentioning that he'd be in attendance.

"My wife and I like country music," Lee said.

Lee's warm welcome to the gathered students included historical highlights of past research, as well as information about current projects and scientific endeavors.

"It was interesting and there was a lot of good information about things I didn't know were going on," says Rebecca Johnson, a senior at UT working in the Chemical Sciences Division. "Dr. Riedinger was also really personable and the topic was geared toward the audience not too technical."

On June 11, the second seminar in the series featured furry little rodents...and the Life Science Division's Dabney Johnson, who opened her lecture on genetics,"Are Mice Good Models for Human Gene Function?" with a comparison: "Had this been last year," Dabney said, "I would have brought mice. Then we had 75 people and 75,000 mice. Now we have very few live mice because of the move to the new Mouse House." Dabney compensated for the absent mice with overheads and comprehensive explanations of how scientists go about locating a mutation and discovering what gene is responsible for that mutation.

"I look forward to what this research will eventually accomplish," said Erica Sherritze, a senior at Tennessee Technological University and a summer student in Math Education.

The summer student seminar series is presented weekly by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. The next seminar will be held June 19, at 12 noon, in Wigner Auditorium (4500N). A complete list of the seminars planned for this summer can be found on the AVE site. Erin DeMuth