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Sparks joined ORNL in 1958, following two years at the U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio.
He received bachelor's and doctoral degrees in metallurgical engineering from the University of Kentucky.
Sparks is an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Previously, he served as a member of the U.S.A. National Committee for Crystallography, National Research Council, and as chairman of the executive committee of the National Synchrotron Light Source Users' Group.
Sparks has received a Department of Energy Award for Sustained Outstanding Research and an R&D-100 Award from R&D magazine. He is a fellow of ASM International and a member of the Materials Research Society; the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers; Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi. He holds two patents for inventions.
He and his wife, Janet, live in Oak Ridge.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the Department of Energy's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., which also manages the Oak Ridge K-25 Site, and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant.
1994 .