Honors and Awards

ORNL has named Joe Hoagland associate laboratory director for its Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate, supporting its role in advancing the nation’s nuclear energy capabilities and the growth of the Oak Ridge Corridor as a nuclear industry hub. In this role, Hoagland will support the lab’s national missions and the growth of the nuclear and fusion energy sector.

Lianhong Gu, distinguished staff scientist in the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named a fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA).

Rinkle Juneja, an R&D staff scientist at ORNL, has been recognized as an Early Career Distinguished Presenter by the Materials Research Society and was selected to represent ORNL on the “Materials Research at the U.S. DOE National Laboratories” panel at the MRS Fall Meeting.

David Cullen, a Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory distinguished R&D staff scientist, has been elected a Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America, a professional honor recognizing sustained scientific achievement and service that advance the fields of microscopy and microanalysis.

ORNL was recently awarded six Federal Laboratory Consortium awards, including the 2026 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award, for technology commercialized by Element3 that enables the extraction of lithium from oil and gas wastewater.

Adrian Sabau, a computational materials scientist at ORNL, has received the Materials Processing & Manufacturing Division (MPMD) Distinguished Service Award from The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), recognizing his sustained contributions to the field and service to the professional community.

Ann Weaver has been named chief operating officer for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Weaver has established a record of leading large, complex organizations toward improved performance, reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness in a 22-year career at ORNL.

Jennifer Morrell-Falvey, a senior staff scientist at ORNL, has been elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher

ORNL postdoctoral associate Jakob Bludau was named a 2026 Better Scientific Software Fellow, recognizing his leadership in advancing sustainable, high-performance scientific software and highlighting ORNL’s role in shaping the future of computational science.

Leah Broussard, a research scientist in the Physics Division at ORNL, has received the inaugural DOE Distinguished Mentor Award for Workforce Development, recognizing scientists who guide and support the next generation of researchers.