Thomas Thundat and Eric Wachter received the Excellence in Research Award for their effort in developing, demonstrating and patenting a new class of micromechanical sensors that are at least 1,000 times as sensitive and 1,000 times smaller than other sensors currently used.
Tina Graves and Sherry Campbell were awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award, which has been presented to outstanding nonexempt employees for the past six years.
Graves won the award for her efforts in streamlining and monitoring cost center charges for the Assessment Technology Section. The cost center rate for the section has dropped by almost $10 per hour over the past three years.
Campbell has made remarkable efforts in facilitating computer setup, troubleshooting, training, and problem solving for three HSRD sections at their new offices at Commerce Park, helping more than 100 people make easy transition into a new working environment.
A native of Cochin, India, Thundat received a doctorate in physics from the State University of New York and became an assistant research professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a faculty research associate at Arizona State University before joining ORNL in 1990 as a research staff member.
Wachter is a native of Louisville, Ky. and a chemist, receiving a bachelor's degree from Indiana University, Bloomington and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He joined the ORNL research staff in 1988.
A Tennessee state-certified cosmetologist, Graves is a native of Knoxville, Tenn. She attended the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and graduated from Tennessee Technology Center at Knoxville before joining ORNL in 1976 as a store manager. She became a staff member of HSRD in 1984.
A native of Anderson County and an experienced computing technologist, Campbell graduated from Tennessee Technology Center at Harriman before joining ORNL in 1973. She is active in several committees at ORNL such as ORNL Networking Council, ORNL Women's Committee, ORNL Administrative Computing Steering Committee and the Peer Review Panel.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation.