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Naval Academy midshipmen look at tiny particle fuels while touring ORNL. Credit: Lena Shoemaker/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Nuclear engineering students from the United States Military Academy and United States Naval Academy are working with researchers at ORNL to complete design concepts for a nuclear propulsion rocket to go to space in 2027 as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DRACO program.

A Univ. of Michigan-led team used Frontier, the world’s first exascale supercomputer, to simulate a system of nearly 75,000 magnesium atoms at near-quantum accuracy. Credit: SC23

 

A team of eight scientists won the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2023 Gordon Bell Prize for their study that used the world’s first exascale supercomputer to run one of the largest simulations of an alloy ever and achieve near-quantum accuracy.

From left, Cable-Dunlap, Chi, Smith and Thornton have been named ORNL Corporate Fellows. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Four researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been named ORNL Corporate Fellows in recognition of significant career accomplishments and continued leadership in their scientific fields.

A small droplet of water is suspended in midair via an electrostatic levitator that lifts charged particles using an electric field that counteracts gravity. Credit: Iowa State University/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

How do you get water to float in midair? With a WAND2, of course. But it’s hardly magic. In fact, it’s a scientific device used by scientists to study matter.

2023 Battelle Distinguished Inventors

Four scientists affiliated with ORNL were named Battelle Distinguished Inventors during the lab’s annual Innovation Awards on Dec. 1 in recognition of being granted 14 or more United States patents.

Karen White

Karen White, who works in ORNL’s Neutron Science Directorate, has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Conceptual art depicts machine learning finding an ideal material for capacitive energy storage. Its carbon framework (black) has functional groups with oxygen (pink) and nitrogen (turquoise). Credit: Tao Wang/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Guided by machine learning, chemists at ORNL designed a record-setting carbonaceous supercapacitor material that stores four times more energy than the best commercial material.

Luiz Leal portrait

ORNL’s Luiz Leal of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the recipient of the 2023 Seaborg Medal from the American Nuclear Society.

ORNL researcher Anne Campbell will present a paper in Korea next year on materials support of carbon-free nuclear energy. Credit: Adam Malin, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Anne Campbell, a researcher at ORNL, recently won the Young Leaders Professional Development Award from the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, or TMS, and has been chosen as the first recipient of the Young Leaders International Scholar Program award from TMS and the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials, or KIM.

Michael McGuire received the Director's Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology at the 2023 Awards Night. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Michael McGuire’s recognition as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's top scientist headlined the annual awards. ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer also presented Director’s Awards to two teams, for operational performance and continuous improvement, and to the night’s science communicator awardee