How do you defend the world’s largest machine? This is the question scientists and engineers have faced as the power grid presents an increasingly attractive target for hackers bent on societal disruption.

Ten years into its program to create an automated smart grid supported by an all-fiber-optic communications network, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has seen tremendous benefits. Power outages are down by 60 percent, and operational costs have fallen by some $60 million a year for the municipal utility operating in the town nicknamed America’s first Gig City.

Oak Ridge in its earliest days was a quintessential planned community, and a gated one at that.

We ask some of our young researchers why they chose a career in science, what they are working on at ORNL, and where they would like to go with their careers.

We ask some of our young researchers why they chose a career in science, what they are working on at ORNL, and where they would like to go with their careers.

We ask some of our young researchers why they chose a career in science, what they are working on at ORNL, and where they would like to go with their careers.

We ask some of our young researchers why they chose a career in science, what they are working on at ORNL, and where they would like to go with their careers.