In the annual ORNL Director's Awards ceremony, the Solid State Division received the ORNL Award of Excellence in Research and Development; the Office of Radiation Protection received the ORNL Award of Excellence in Operations and Support; and the Chemical Technology Division received the ORNL Award of Excellence in Environment, Safety and Health.
Citing its "leadership in basic research, industrial partnerships, national and local peer recognition of staff, sponsor satisfaction, and efficient and safe operational performance," Trivelpiece presented the Laboratory's Award of Excellence in Research and Development to the Solid State Division.
The Office of Radiation Protection was honored with the 1995 ORNL Award of Excellence in Operations and Support for "demonstrated excellence in providing effective, efficient health physics support to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and for focused improvements to the Laboratory's health physics program."
Trivelpiece recognized the Chemical Technology Division as this year's recipient of the ORNL Award of Excellence in Environment, Safety, and Health for "excellence in implementing environmental, safety, and health programs to upgrade the rigor and effectiveness of facility operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory while conducting world-class research."
Several accomplishments led to the selection of the Solid State Division for the Award of Excellence in Research and Development. Among the honorees were 14 of ORNL's 62 honorees at Lockheed Martin Energy Systems' 1995 Awards night, including honorees in publication, invention, R&D accomplishment, technical support, administrative and office support, operations support; and scientist of the year Doug Lowndes.
The Solid State Division is a participant in 14 active cooperative research and development agreements. It has the highest journal publication rate at the laboratory, and its citation rate in applied physics and condensed matter physics is higher than that of any other Department of Energy laboratory.
The Solid State Division has maintained an exemplary Safety Record of 6.5 million hours worked without a lost workday.
In being chosen for the ORNL Award of Excellence in Operations and Support, the ORNL Office of Radiation Protection was honored for such accomplishments as completing a total rewrite of the ORNL Health Physics Manual to comply with regulations. The office performed a Malcolm Baldrige assessment to provide more customer focus and it implemented several positive changes.
Another factor in the Office of Radiation Protection's selection was its development of performance measures to monitor effectiveness of changes. Subsequent tracking of this program indicated significant improvement.
The office was also cited because of the downward trend in overall dose received by the laboratory population. No employee or subcontractor at ORNL received even 20 percent of the DOE allowable limit.
In presenting the ORNL Award of Excellence in Environment, Safety, and Health to the Chemical Technology Division, Trivelpiece noted the division's effective, prioritized, graded approach to Conduct of Operations in nuclear facilities, and pointed out that the division had been instrumental in efforts to upgrade the rigor and effectiveness of facility operations across ORNL, while sharing its Lessons Learned with other ORNL organizations.
Division members were key contributors in upgrades in training programs and documentation, safety documentation and procedures, and were instrumental in developing As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) programs.
In addition to recognizing the Laboratory's top divisions and programs of the past year, Trivelpiece paid tribute to Gerald D. Mahan, who was elected this year to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and to Gerard M. Ludtka, winner of a 1995 Ernest O. Lawrence Award.
Mahan, an ORNL/University of Tennessee Distinguished Scientist and perhaps the leading theorist in the world on the subject of many-body effects in x-ray and photoemission spectroscopy, will be inducted into the NAS in April 1996. Mahan is only the second member of ORNL's current staff to be elected to the NAS.
Ludtka was honored on May 15 in Washington for his significant contributions to materials technology. He is credited with developing a method to predict the effects of quenching on microstructure and residual stresses.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Lockheed Marietta Energy Systems, which also manages the Oak Ridge K-25 Site and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant.