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Portrait of a middle-aged man wearing glasses, a gray suit, and a yellow tie against a blue studio background.

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).

Graphic with the words "AAAS" in bold with a curvy "Fellows" below it with a green background

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

Scientific illustration of particles released from a cell interacting with a green surface, with a zoomed-in view of molecular structures

A new biosensor developed at ORNL detects the emerging presence of fungus on plants at the molecular level, paving the way for next-generation crop protection and the development of stress-tolerant plants. 

Scientist in a lab coat and gloves smiling while using a pipette at a lab bench

Rebecca Wilkes, an ORNL synthetic biologist and UT-ORII Fellow, engineers microbes to convert biomass and waste into valuable chemicals. Her work aims to advance efficient biomanufacturing and support a domestic bioeconomy.

 

 

American chestnut tree with burrs in the foreground overlooking forested Blue Ridge Mountains.

Scientists at ORNL were part of a multi-institutional team that explored how modern scientific approaches such as genomics and biochemical profiling can be combined to understand and improve disease resistance in the iconic American chestnut tree.

Scientist wearing safety goggles holding a small lab sample tube in a laboratory.

Carrie Eckert is working toward a future in which engineered microbes and plants are the workhorses of ultra-efficient biofactories, turning biomass into high-value products. As co-chief science officer for DOE's Center for Bioenergy Innovation at ORNL, she is stewarding a team of scientists across the country who are making that vision a reality.

Alex Walters works with the ORNL SMART Plant 1.0 system that robotically samples and treats plant tissue, expediting the plant transformation process.

To meet the growing demand for faster scientific discovery that strengthens bioeconomy, plant scientists worked with manufacturing systems engineers at ORNL to develop robotics and computer vision to accelerate the development of new stress-tolerant plants. 

A single angled rhizobox containing a flowering plant positioned inside an enclosed imaging chamber illuminated by multicolored LED lights, casting a purple glow.

ORNL has launched a novel robotic platform to rapidly analyze plant root systems as they grow, yielding AI-ready data to accelerate the development of stress-tolerant crops for new fuels, chemicals and materials. The new platform adds belowground imaging to ORNL’s Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory.

A scientist in a white lab coat and safety glasses operates a large analytical instrument in a laboratory, adjusting tubing and controls on the front panel while monitoring the setup.

Scientists at ORNL were part of a team that identified the existence of a unique genetic code in microbes that can expand cellular building blocks in living organisms.

Andrea Garza Elizondo works with high-throughput microbial phenotyping equipment at ORNL

Scientists at ORNL have developed software that reduces the time needed for a key task in the development of custom microbes from a week to just hours. The new tool cracks a key defense mechanism of microorganisms, expediting the creation of microbes with desired traits for the production of new biofuels and other valuable products for the bioeconomy.