Four firms receive ORNL small business awards

Four firms doing business with the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory received ORNL Small Business Awards during an awards ceremony on June 29. The companies were recognized by the lab’s Small Business Programs Office for their specific capabilities, contributions and strategic problem-solving that often led to cost savings for ORNL.

“Small businesses are essential to ORNL delivering on our mission each day,” interim ORNL Director Jeff Smith said. “It is important that we recognize these businesses as they are our partners in meeting the nation’s science and technology needs.”

This year’s ORNL Small Business Awards honorees included:

HUBZone Small Business of the Year: Geiger Brothers, a HUBZone small business with locations in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Columbus and Jackson, Ohio, was recognized for the company’s outstanding work in construction. Members of ORNL’s procurement and technical staff said the company earned a reputation for high-quality work at reasonable market costs, even providing storm water protection measures at their own cost to mitigate future impacts of a heavy-weather storm. This ultimately saved ORNL thousands of dollars in potential losses.

Small Business of the Year: Government Scientific Source, or GSS, a small business located in Reston, Virginia, was recognized for its quick response time and professionalism providing a variety of products through the ORNL catalog vendor system. GSS proactively solved a shortage of a popular brand of glass vials needed for research by looking for alternatives, confirming timely shipping and initiating consistent updates. 

Small Business of the Year: Inovoal, an engineering and project management small business located in Spring, Texas, was recognized for outstanding contributions to the U.S. ITER project. The company first provided a nitrogen tank, an essential component of the cooling water system used to manage heat during operations. Inovoal then provided additional products maintaining a flexible and strategic approach that helped ORNL reduce costs while producing high-quality outcomes.

Small Business of the Year: Kalt Manufacturing Company, a small manufacturing business located in Cleveland, Ohio, was recognized for support of the critical fabrication activities for the High Flux Isotope Reactor’s Beryllium Reflector Replacement project.

Roy Etheridge, an ORNL procurement officer, received the ORNL Small Business Advocate of the Year Award. Etheridge was recognized for his consistent support for small business in his procurement activities, including his work with the staff augmentation Basic Ordering Agreement.

Visit ORNL’s Small Business Programs Office website for more information.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.