This year’s Military Fellows in the National Security Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been busy engaging areas across the lab — from additive manufacturing to energy conversion and storage — to foster innovations and partnerships that bolster the U.S. Air Force.
Lt. Col. Brett “Coop” Cooper and Maj. Matt “Sting” Postupack are Air Force officers serving a tour of duty at ORNL. During their one-year appointment, Sting and Coop are digging into ORNL’s R&D efforts and leveraging their networks to connect lab capabilities to defense applications.
Recently, the duo hosted Air Force colleagues from the Blue Horizons program, prototypes new technologies that enhance U.S. military competitiveness and agile air combat. Blue Horizons Fellows work with industry and national laboratories to identify and develop strategic capabilities during a 10-month appointment. The team visited ORNL to learn about a range of power conversion technologies and toured several user facilities, including the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility and the National Transportation Research Center.
“One of the strengths of NSSD’s Military Fellows Program is having military personnel embedded in our national security missions who can facilitate these kinds of opportunities,” said ORNL Co-Lead Tim Delk. “Our fellows add enormous value to the lab and energize the important work we are doing.”
It’s all about exposure, the fellows say. Sting and Coop gain insights and contacts through their collaborations here that they can take with them into the next stage of their careers. They also introduce compelling needs and ideas to fuel the lab’s research.
“The relationships we create here often give researchers a new sense of purpose and value that can drive their work forward,” Sting said. “We’re able to interact with many staff and provide a unique perspective from our lived experiences that many people may not otherwise encounter in such a direct way.”
“One of the most important activities we can do here is to look for applications that haven’t been considered,” Coop said. “We’re well positioned to identify capability areas and create a network for fast-tracking technologies.”
Additive manufacturing is one of the most exciting areas for the fellows because of its potential for mass production as well as one-off parts that can serve remote operations in a pinch, such as recovering a stranded aircraft.
The Military Fellows Program tends to be applications-focused, but fellows are also interested in basic research advances that support emerging technologies. The lab’s strengths in materials and chemistry, for example, are tied to developing capabilities in additive manufacturing and sustainable energy.
In nearly 20 years since the program was established, the lab has seen real-time returns on the investment through funding growth, collaborations and workforce development.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Ashley Huff