Dr. Kenneth W. Tobin is the Chief Research and University Partnerships Officer at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). In this role he grows ORAU’s research enterprise while expanding partnerships with the over 150 universities that are part of the ORAU consortium, by fostering relationships and business development opportunities with the federal government, national laboratories, and private industry. He also serves as the Institutional Official for ORAU, ensuring an effective human research protection program.

Prior to this he served in numerous research leadership positions at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) including Director of the Office of Institutional Planning, Director of the Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division, and Director of the Electrical and Electronics Systems Research Division. Dr. Tobin earned his BS in Physics and MS in Nuclear Engineering from Virginia Tech and his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Virginia, where his dissertation contribution was in computational imaging methods for neutron radiography. He has authored and coauthored more than 180 total publications and he holds 15 issued US patents that have been licensed by more than 20 semiconductor device manufacturers as well as patents licensed for use in the field of telemedicine. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his work including the American Telemedical Association Innovation Award, Battelle Memorial Institute Distinguished Inventor, two R&D 100 Awards, nine Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards, and the Tennessee Academy of Science Industrial Scientist of the Year. He was an ORNL Corporate Research Fellow, and is a Fellow of IEEE and SPIE, and is a member of AAAS.