ORNL has hosted its share.
A film crew from Thailand visited ORNL in 2015, retracing the steps of that nation's revered King Bhumbidol Adulyadej. ORNL was a stop on the young king's high-level U.S. tour in 1960; photos from the visit show him touring the Oak Ridge Research Reactor with an attentive Atomic Energy Commission and ORNL entourage. A Thai TV production 55 years later would chronicle the life of the ailing king, who died in 2016, and the ORNL visit was a noteworthy chapter.
ORNL, because of its pioneering role in the peaceful uses of atomic energy and later as a center for cutting-edge science, has been a destination for VIP visitors almost since its inception.
U.S. Presidents who spoke have been Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, in 1978, 1992 and 2004, respectively. Vice President Hubert Humphrey visited in 1965 and Vice President Al Gore has made several visits, including to announce the Spallation Neutron Source, and arrived once as a private citizen by helicopter.
Among politicians have been Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford (before they were president), favorite son Senator and Ambassador Howard Baker (several times) and Ambassador Andrew Young.
ORNL has hosted royalty several times. In addition to King Bhumbidol, the Lab hosted the former King Leopold of Belgium in 1957; Queen Frederika of Greece, regally dressed in fur in 1958; and a young King Hussein of Jordan in 1959. International leaders also included Ambassador Indira Nehru (later Prime Minister Indira Ghandi) of India in 1963.
Because it is a renowned science facility, ORNL has received its share of esteemed scientists, including Nobel Laureates. Eugene Wigner and Enrico Fermi worked at ORNL. AEC chief and Nobel winner Glenn Seaborg came in 1966 to start up the Molten Salt Reactor and again to dedicate the transuranium lab in Bldg. 5505. Nobel Laureate Gertrude Elion visited a Women in Science conference in 1991. Physicist and Fermilab architect Robert Wilson visited, and Fermilab Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman visited twice.
Nobel winners Harry Kroto and Bill Phillips gave lectures in the 1990s, then returned to be Eugene Wigner Distinguished lecturers. The Wigner Lecture series, begun in 2014, in fact has brought a host of Nobel Laureates to the Laboratory. One Nobel winner, Steven Chu, visited the Lab as Energy Secretary.
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's founder and CEO and developer of the graphical processing unit, may be the closest thing to a rock star to visit the Lab, at least for computer game aficionados. Huang was at ORNL on June 8 for the Summit launch along with Gov. Haslam.
Albert Einstein, alas, never set foot at ORNL.
The most photogenic VIP visit to ORNL occurred in 1959 when then-Sen. John F. Kennedy, who was testing the waters for a presidential run, arrived with his captivating wife, Jackie. Lab Director Alvin Weinberg appointed himself her personal escort. The future President and First Lady of "Camelot" must have been the most glamorous couple ever to stand on the viewing platform of the Oak Ridge Research Reactor.
