Jeff Smith is retiring again, this time from the UT System
He first came to the region when UT-Battelle assumed the management contract for ORNL April 1, 2000.
Jeff Smith is retiring . . . again.
In an email on April 15, University of Tennessee (UT) System President Randy Boyd made the announcement that the longtime Deputy Director for Operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory would relinquish his latest role – Vice President for National Labs for the UT System. He has held the position since January 2024, and Smith’s last day with UT will be June 30.
Following his retirement, Kari Babski-Reeves, the UT System’s Associate Vice President for Research, will assume lab-related responsibilities and continue advancing UT’s strategic interests in this space. She has been with the UT System since the fall of 2024 and brings more than two decades of research, leadership, and teaching experience from Mississippi State University and Virginia Tech.
“Jeff came out of retirement in 2023 to serve as interim ORNL Lab Director at the request of the UT-Battelle board, providing critical continuity and guidance until October of that year,” Boyd wrote in the email. “Jeff has played a pivotal role in strengthening our partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the U.S. Department of Energy, and Battelle Memorial Institute. His leadership was instrumental in securing a five-year extension of the UT-Battelle contract to manage ORNL—an achievement that underscores the significance of UT’s presence in the national research landscape.”
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