ORNL researcher Brenden R. Ortiz examines materials he developed in 2023 as part of the Lab’s Distinguished Staff Fellowship program. Ortiz will collaborate with California State University, East Bay, to investigate electronic instabilities and magnetic correlations in these materials as part of DOE’s Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research program. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Researchers from the Physical Sciences Directorate will help build research capabilities at universities across the country as part of $36 million in grants from DOE’s Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research, or FAIR, program. The research topics span from better utilization of recycled aluminum to solid-state inorganic chemistry.
The FAIR program aims to build research capacity, including infrastructure and expertise, at universities historically underrepresented in DOE’s Office of Science portfolio, including Minority Serving Institutions and Emerging Research Institutions. FAIR awardees partner with researchers at a national lab or user facility to enhance scientific capabilities in areas such as clean energy and climate.
The FAIR program shares similar goals to DOE’s Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce, or RENEW, although FAIR focuses on research while RENEW is geared more toward training.
The projects selected from PSD this year include:
- Andrew Christianson and Huibo Cao will partner with researchers from Kennesaw State University to explore the relationship between electronic topology and magnetism in magnetic topological semimetal, or MTS, materials. The research could lead to tunable MTS materials that have application in fields such as spintronics, catalysis and quantum computing.
- Ying Yang will work with Missouri University of Science and Technology to improve the usability of recycled aluminum alloys. The effort will focus on understanding and controlling impurities in the casting process.
- Matthew Boebinger will assist in the training and analysis of 4D-scanning transmission electron microscopy datasets that Florida A&M University, or FAMU, will acquire using a new camera it plans to purchase with its grant. Boebinger is an alumnus of the FAMU-Florida State University College of Engineering.
- Thomas Watkins will work to increase the research capabilities of Alabama State University’s chemistry degree program with a focus on solid-state inorganic chemistry.
- Raphael Hermann and Matthew Loyd will partner with Fisk University to develop novel lithium-based halide dual-mode scintillators for neutron-gamma radiation detection and imaging by means of neutron diffraction and irradiation.
- Brenden R. Ortiz will work with California State University, East Bay, to investigate electronic instabilities and magnetic correlations in kagome metals using advanced magnetic resonance techniques.
- Jason Newby and the ORNL Neutrino Research Group will work with North Carolina Central University to investigate inelastic neutrino-nucleus scattering by developing and deploying instrumentation for neutrinos at SNS.
Learn more about this funding opportunity here.
