Thom Mason Laboratory Director

Not since the days of the Manhattan Project has the Laboratory witnessed anything approaching the scale of what is taking place today. Just outside my window we have opened a new 300,000 sq ft facility that houses one of the world's largest supercomputers. Down the street, we have a new Center for Functional Genomics. Next door, some of the world's most powerful electron microscopes will help sustain our leadership in advanced materials research.

Up on Chestnut Ridge,  the nation's first Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences has opened, next to Spallation Neutron Source, which sets a record every time the beam power it increased up to its eventual 1.4 megawatts. Meanwhile, we have partnered with the state of Tennessee and the University of Tennessee on  Joint Institute for Computational Sciences and the Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, both of which have attracted major new programs. As modern facilities make possible cutting-edge research, ORNL is witnessing a refocusing of the Laboratory's mission for the next generation of great science.