• Read more about AI for the power grid

• Read more about The future of AI runs through ORNL

• Read more about AI for materials

• Read more about AI for climate and weather forecasting

• Read more about AI for pharmaceuticals

• Read more about AI for national security

• Read more about ORNL’s journey to computing excellence had humble beginnings

• Read more about Why Science?

• Read more about Paving paths for a new nuclear workforce

• Read more about East Tennessee may become a hub for nuclear medicine

• Read more about Nuclear industry gets a boost from Tennessee government

The long partnership between the University of Tennessee and 91°”Íű has led to scientific discoveries and impact that could not have been accomplished by either institution alone.

• Read more about Still collaborating after all these years

The future of the UT-ORNL partnership lies with the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute, or UT-ORII, which named David Sholl as its second director in April and launched two new “convergent research initiatives” this year that exemplify the institute’s purpose and promise.

• Read more about An institute to supercharge the UT-ORNL alliance

Of approximately 20,000 employees working at ORNL or in the UT System, 13 stand out most prominently. These are the Governor’s Chairs, a group of highly accomplished researchers and academics brought to Tennessee to advance fields that are important to the UT System and to ORNL.

• Read more about Governor's Chairs program attracts scientific luminaries

The integration of UT and ORNL may be best exemplified by the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education, a 13-year-old Ph.D. program that places students at both the university and the lab.

• Read more about Doctoral students look beyond academia

To help the aviation sector reach a goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050, DOE’s Center for Bioenergy Innovation at ORNL is setting its expertise and capabilities in plant science, genomics, microbiology and chemistry to the task of creating new low-carbon fuels for airplanes.

• Read more about Producing biofuels for jets

• Read more about Why science?

After debuting last year as ORNL’s fourth No. 1 supercomputer in a row and granting access to its first users in April, Frontier settled into regular operations this summer.

• Read more about Exascale impact

The Frontier supercomputer includes some of the world’s most advanced technologies.

• Read more about Facts about Frontier

How did the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility and its vendor partners AMD and HPE Cray overcome the daunting obstacles that stood between them and the world's first exascale supercomputer? It took a lot of organization, several false starts and some fortuitous advances in computing technology.

• Read more about ORNL's methodical leap into the exascale era

As renewable sources of energy such as wind and sun power are increasingly added to the country’s electrical grid, old-fashioned nuclear energy is also being primed for a resurgence.

• Read more about Exascale tools for developing new reactors

Ensuring Frontier runs as advertised spanned two fronts: the hardware and software, handled mainly by the Operations Section, and the codes developed to run the various simulations, handled mainly by the Scientific Engagement Section.

• Read more about OLCF teams fine-tune Frontier for science

Here are a few of the many talented ORNL employees behind the construction and operation of Frontier.

• Read more about Pioneering Frontier

ORNL is proud of its role in fostering the next generation of scientists and engineers.

• Read more about Why science?

In 1942, Katharine (Kay) Way was teaching physics at the University of Tennessee when a former professor recruited her to join the top-secret Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago. 

• Read more about Kay Way: The mother of nuclear data

Since 2010, DOE’s Office of Science has helped to expand and invigorate the nation’s scientific workforce by supporting 785 young scientists at universities and national laboratories through its Early Career Research Program. This year, three ORNL scientists were among the 83 selected to receive ECRP awards.

• Read more about ORNL’s Early Career Research Program award winners

Trey Gebhart traces his interest in fusion energy back to his experiences as an undergraduate engineering student at Virginia Tech.

• Read more about Pushing fusion energy technology forward

Elizabeth Herndon has already worked in a variety of environments, focusing her research on how soil minerals affect the storage or release of organic matter and nutrients in various ecosystems.

• Read more about Promoting healthy river deltas

"When I was an undergraduate, my major was mathematics,” Guannan Zhang said, “but when I went to graduate school, I got into programming and other aspects of computing, so it was very natural for me to pursue a Ph.D. in computational mathematics.”

• Read more about Quantifying uncertainty in inverse problems

ORNL physicist Libby Johnson, one of the world’s first nuclear reactor operators, standardized the field of criticality safety with peers from ORNL and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

• Read more about Libby Johnson: On the frontier for nuclear safety

ORNL is proud of its role in fostering the next generation of scientists and engineers.

• Read more about Why science?

An ORNL team has tackled the challenge of detecting nuclear materials in vehicles by combining radiation detection with seismology, typically used to study earthquakes.

• Read more about Researchers use seismology, radiation detection to bolster nonproliferation efforts

Computational researchers from ORNL are working with a Cincinnati children’s hospital to better predict and address mental health disorders in children.

• Read more about Computational tools promote children's mental health

As the world has grown more technologically advanced and interconnected, the physical limitations of adversarial engagements have diminished.

• Read more about National security science tackles a new generation of threats

The creation of physics-based gas centrifuge simulations to better understand centrifuge design for uranium enrichment is the primary purpose of a program called the Advance Simulation Initiatives for Nonproliferation Applications, or ASINA.

• Read more about High-performance computing boosts uranium research

ORNL’s Geospatial Science and Human Security Division combines expertise in high-performance computing and geospatial science to provide decision-makers with timely information for rapid emergency response, disaster recovery and power restoration. 

• Read more about ORNL tools help ensure energy supply

Energy infrastructure is so interconnected that cascading failures can have wide-reaching effects on access to safe food, winter heating and life-sustaining medical devices.

• Read more about Strengthening cybersecurity in the energy sector

ORNL is proud of its role in fostering the next generation of scientists and engineers.

• Read more about Why science?

A lesser-known mission of the Manhattan Project during the last two years of World War II saw American engineers traveling around Europe to understand the state of the Nazi nuclear program.

• Read more about Engineers and scientists support nonproliferation efforts

About a mile from the laboratory’s boundary, Freels Bend Cabin sits atop a rise overlooking Melton Hill Lake. 

• Read more about Oak Ridge's last 19th-century building

ORNL user facilities advance research in a wide range of science and technology, from explorations of the nature of the universe and its origins to the development of advanced manufacturing technologies that keep the United States competitive.

• Read more about User facilities

A reality in science today is that in order to study the smallest, most fundamental elements of nature, scientists need access to some of the world’s largest and most powerful research centers — with facilities often costing billions of dollars.

• Read more about Getting down to basic

While ORNL's Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility often makes headlines for hosting the world's fastest supercomputers, its ultimate achievement is more complex: helping researchers solve some of the world’s most challenging scientific problems.

• Read more about OLCF

When U.S. industries need to research, test, troubleshoot and perfect an innovation before it reaches the marketplace, many turn to DOE’s applied science user facilities at ORNL.

• Read more about National user facilities use applied science to accelerate industry growth

ORNL is deeply involved in the race to mitigate climate change. With a staff of world-class experts in fields ranging from ecology to chemistry to computer science and the nation’s most powerful supercomputer, the lab helps us understand the problems that lie ahead and evaluate potential solutions.

• Read more about Infographic: Predicting the planet's future

ORNL scientists clearly invent technologies and processes, and the laboratory wants to make them available to U.S. companies with the goal of improving the national economy.

• Read more about Mothers (and fathers) of invention

David Sholl leads the Transformational Decarbonization Initiative. Image credit: Genevieve Martin, ORNL

• Read more about Decarbonization: Q&A with David Sholl

"There are many things I find interesting, and what they have in common is they provide opportunities to find solutions."

• Read more about Why science? Joni Hall

ORNL is proud of its role in fostering the next generation of scientists and engineers.

• Read more about Why science?

"I like to think the career chooses the person."

• Read more about Why science? Darren Driscoll

"I used to ask my mother what I could invent that would make her proud."

• Read more about Why science? Vasudevan Iyer

"I believe that microbes hold the blueprint to our survival."

• Read more about Why science? Omy Tonia Ogbughalu

"I have always enjoyed mathematics and computer science."

• Read more about Why science? Kevin De Angeli

"As a scientist, I want to advance chemistry through an interdisciplinary and multicultural approach to solving critical energy and environmental problems."

• Read more about Why science? Yessica Alejandra Nelson

ORNL researchers are deeply involved in applying the principles of a circular economy.

• Read more about Keeping materials out of landfills

The United States — and indeed the world — is in the midst of a water crisis.

• Read more about Ensuring our water future

Taking advantage of the impending increase in demand for lithium will be particularly challenging for the United States, which currently produces very little of the critically important mineral.

• Read more about Lithium recovery: A critical challenge for battery tech

 A collaborative research team from ORNL and other national laboratories is using artificial intelligence and computational screening techniques — in combination with experimental validation — to identify and design drug therapies to target the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Here are five promising approaches.

• Read more about Infographic: Interrupting COVID-19

In early 2020, before the novel coronavirus had been named a pandemic, ORNL computational chemist Marti Head abruptly switched her focus — as did many scientists and researchers around the globe — to fight COVID-19.

• Read more about DOE scientists deploy creativity, speed to disrupt COVID-19

Five ORNL scientists have been tapped by DOE’s Office of Science to receive significant research funding as part of the Early Career Research Program.

• Read more about A tremendous achievement in a tumultuous year

Matthew Beidler, a physicist in the Fusion Energy Division, started on a research path at a very young age.

• Read more about Embracing a problem to unlock fusion’s future

A diverse group of fungi lives in symbiosis with poplar trees, sharing water and nutrients in a complex and mutually beneficial system. Understanding these interactions provides an opportunity to engineer ecosystems — maximizing soil health, mitigating adverse impacts on climate and producing resilient plants.

• Read more about Harnessing microbes to boost biofuels

It’s Fankang Li’s job to dream up new ways to see into the dynamics at play on the subatomic level. As a neutron method development scientist in the Neutron Technologies Division, Li creates new techniques and instruments.

• Read more about Developing state- of-the-art tools to ‘see more, imagine more’

Beam halo — particles ejected far outside a particle accelerator’s core beam — limits the performance of high-intensity accelerators.

• Read more about Fighting beam loss in six dimensions

Researchers preparing for sustained fusion devices must shift from technologies that feed fuel to a fusion plasma’s edge to ones, such as cryogenic pellets, that deliver fuel to the plasma’s core.

• Read more about Fueling the future of fusion

Samuel Ting shared the 1976 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of the J/psi meson, which consists of a charm quark and a charm antiquark. More recently, he has led international collaborations in experimental physics onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station, as well as at accelerators in the United States, Germany and Switzerland. He delivered the Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture on June 17, 2021, sharing an update on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Experiment, which is being conducted on the ISS.

• Read more about Eugene Wigner Distinguished Lecturer

"I enjoy gaining a deeper understanding of nature and enjoy problem solving."

• Read more about Why science? Luc L. Dessieux

"Since my dad bought me my first toolbox at a young age, I have been fascinated with STEM."

• Read more about Why science? Aaleyah Lewis

"I chose a career in science because it gives new perspectives on how to think about the world."

• Read more about Why science? Phil Lotshaw

"Many topics interest me, and collaborative research presents me opportunities to develop interdisciplinary solutions to global issues."

• Read more about Why science? Peter Joseph Queturas Santiago

"I have always been amazed by the level of scientific progress and resources driven by ORNL."

• Read more about Why science? Emily Costa

"Growing up in China, I was passionate about how science and technology could revolutionize the world."

• Read more about Why science? Xingang Zhao

Studies on the structure of RNA were done at ORNL in the early 1950s by biologist Elliot “Ken” Volkin and biochemist Waldo Cohn. They used radioisotope and chromatography techniques that were originally developed for plutonium production at the laboratory’s Graphite Reactor during World War II.

• Read more about COVID-19 mRNA vaccines have Oak Ridge roots

Electricity powers our lives, and ORNL researchers are deeply involved in every aspect of the electricity ecosystem.

• Read more about Better living through electricity

Our society’s ability to transition to clean energy technologies depends, to a great extent, on having adequate supplies of the materials needed to manufacture components that will be ubiquitous in a clean energy economy — particularly batteries and electric motors.

• Read more about Ensuring the supply of critical materials

To make electric vehicle charging even easier than filling up a car with gas, ORNL researchers have demonstrated a range of wireless charging solutions for stationary vehicles and are nearing completion of a new system to charge EVs while they’re in motion.

• Read more about Going wireless for better vehicle charging

The Grid Research Integration and Deployment Center, located in Hardin Valley, about eight miles from ORNL’s main campus, pulls together ORNL’s work in electricity.

• Read more about New center houses ORNL electricity research

We hope you enjoy the following introductions to the scientific leaders who will be guiding ORNL into the future.

• Read more about ORNL welcomes world-class scientific leaders

From Denmark to Japan, the UK, France and Sweden, Ken Andersen has worked at neutron sources around the world.

• Read more about Ken Andersen: Solving complicated problems

Cynthia Jenks leads ORNL’s Physical Sciences Directorate with a research portfolio spanning basic and applied initiatives across materials sciences, chemistry, nanoscience and physics.

• Read more about Cynthia Jenks: Beyond the surface

As the world grapples with climate change, there’s never been a more exciting, urgent time to be working in nuclear energy. 

• Read more about Kathy McCarthy: Science in the sweet spot

Nichols is ensuring ORNL remains a global leader by growing programs in quantum computing and networking and evolving the lab’s computational portfolio to accommodate the coming data revolution.

• Read more about Jeff Nichols: Keeping ORNL on top of the computing world

Decarbonization is just one of many initiatives Sun is focused on in her role leading ORNL’s largest applied science directorate.

• Read more about Xin Sun: Leading clean energy transitions through innovation

Leading a complex directorate requires expertise and vision. Sutharshan first began developing those qualities not in a radiological lab or at a nuclear reactor, but under the Golden Arches. 

• Read more about Balendra Sutharshan: Building an organization of impact

As head of the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate, Wullschleger leads a diverse and inclusive organization focused on advancing understanding of the natural world and developing innovations that benefit the environment and grow the nation’s bioeconomy.

• Read more about Stan Wullschleger: Solving societal challenges through science

"As a scientist, I enjoy learning and contributing to the understanding of our natural world."

• Read more about Why science? Bryan P. Maldonado Puente

"I am always curious about the underlying mechanisms of how things work and why things appear in their current forms in nature."

• Read more about Why science? Yiling Yu

"Becoming a scientist was the dream of my childhood."

• Read more about Why science? Jian Peng

"Through my research on mercury fate and transport, I’ve become aware of the inequitable impact of environmental exposures on communities of color and low-income communities."

• Read more about Why science? Faye Koenigsmark

"I believe data-driven and empirical decision-making is crucial for bettering the world."

• Read more about Why science? Jason Hirschey

"Proteins are fascinating machines whose potential can be harnessed for unique chemistry."

• Read more about Why science? Gabriela Schröder

Early U.S. airmail pilots, particularly those flying at night or in bad weather, faced serious navigational challenges until the Post Office commissioned the Transcontinental Air Mail Route, a network of airway beacons designed to guide pilots across the largely featureless nighttime landscape.

• Read more about A piece of aviation history hidden in the woods

In 1948, the government erected a funny-looking building in the woods between ORNL and the Y-12 Plant (now the Y-12 National Security Complex). Named Installation Dog, it was a concrete bunker built into the side of a hill, with a vault that would do a bank proud.

• Read more about The barn that wasn’t a barn

This year, three ORNL scientists will receive grants for $500,000 per year for five years through the Early Career Research Program of DOE's Office of Science to cover salary and research expenses.

• Read more about Celebrating the next generation of great scientists

Elijah Martin vividly remembers the first time he heard the word “plasma.”

• Read more about Elijah Martin: An unanswered question launches a career quest

Benjamin Sulman, a scientist in ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division, seeks to fully assess estuarine wetlands by simulating the environment using the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, a DOE leading-edge modeling, simulation and prediction project involving eight national labs, including ORNL.

• Read more about Benjamin Sulman: Shifting from physics to ecology

Peter Jiang has been captivated by physics since his childhood in China.

• Read more about Peter Jiang: Getting more out of a neutron beam

ORNL scientists have designed and additively manufactured a first-of-its-kind aluminum device that enhances the capture of carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel plants and other industrial processes.

• Read more about Novel 3D-printed device enhances carbon dioxide capture

Readers of ORNL Review know that our national laboratories are home to super-cool, state-of-the-art facilities where scientists and engineers develop amazing technologies. Equally important is the role national labs play in boosting the nation’s economy by teaming up with business and industrial partners to move these technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.

• Read more about Rapid commercialization: Fast-tracking promising technologies

As a leader in climate science, clean energy innovations and national security, ORNL is in a unique position to harness extensive expertise and big science tools like the nation’s most powerful

• Read more about Understanding the complexities of climate change