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Media Contact: Fred Strohl Communications and Media Relations 865.574.4165

ORHS students' research in national science contest

Audio Clip

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 20, 2006 — A team of Three Oak Ridge High School students entered as finalists in a national science competition are explain their work at a seminar Monday night at Oak Ridge's Pollard Auditorium.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher Chris Symons says the students' research involves the laboratory's supercomputer to study bacteria as a producer of ethanol.

"The hope is that eventually we can use this type of tool to identify better biological processes by which ethanol can be produced," says Symons.

Oak Ridge's 54 trillion calculations per second supercomputer can figure this type of complex challenge.

"What they have done is take some interesting new mathematical concepts and tried to apply them through computer science to where they'll be useful on supercomputers," Symonds says.

The national science competition finals will be held the first weekend of December in New York.

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.