The yearly gathering of ceramic scientists features a ceramographic competition in which entries compete for honors in a variety of categories, including optical microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, problem solving and combined techniques.
The ORNL award won first place in the optical microscopy category. The entry was entitled "Surface Blister Formation on Co-Implanted Al2O3" and was submitted by Lynn A. Boatner and Laurence Gea of ORNL's Solid State Division and Mary Jane Gardner of ORNL's Metals and Ceramics Division. Gea is a native of France presently working as an ORNL and Oak Ridge Institute of Science Education (ORISE) postdoctoral associate. Gardner is an engineering technologist at ORNL.
Other ORNL staff members who contributed to the prize-winning effort are John Smith and Kim Choudhury of the Technical Photography Group of the Metals and Ceramics Division and Allison Baldwin of the Graphic Arts Group.
The ORNL research activity on which the winning optical micrographs were based deals with the application of a technique referred to as ion implantation, which is a method in which energetic particles bombard a surface and alters its properties. The materials used by this process are of interest for a variety of applications, including the development of new types of electronic sensors.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, which also manages the Oak Ridge K-25 Site and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant.