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Michelle Kidder received the lab’s Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology for her decades-long work mentoring students, teachers and early-career staff. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Laboratory Director Thomas Zacharia presented five Director’s Awards during Saturday night's annual Awards Night event hosted by UT-Battelle, which manages ORNL for the Department of Energy.

ORNL will use its land surface modeling tools to determine Baltimore’s climate risk and analyze green infrastructure improvements that can help mitigate impacts on underserved communities as part of a DOE Urban Integrated Field Laboratory project. Source: Google Earth, accessed Sept. 12, 2022

ORNL researchers are deploying their broad expertise in climate data and modeling to create science-based mitigation strategies for cities stressed by climate change as part of two U.S. Department of Energy Urban Integrated Field Laboratory projects.

ORNL’s RapidCure improves lithium-ion electrode production by producing electrodes faster, reducing the energy necessary for manufacturing and eliminating the need for a solvent recycling unit. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their technologies have received seven 2022 R&D 100 Awards, plus special recognition for a battery-related green technology product.

Innovation Crossroads Cohort Six includes: Bianca Bailey, Agriwater; Rajan Kumar, Ateois Systems; Alex Stiles, Vitriform3D; Kim Tutin, Captis Aire; Anca Timofte, Holocene Climate; and Pete Willette, facil.ai. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Innovation Crossroads program welcomes six new science and technology innovators from across the United States to the sixth cohort. 

Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy, a nondestructive technique in which the tip of the probe of a microscope scatters pulses of light to generate a picture of a sample, allowed the team to obtain insights into the composition of plant cell walls. Credit: Ali Passian/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

To optimize biomaterials for reliable, cost-effective paper production, building construction, and biofuel development, researchers often study the structure of plant cells using techniques such as freezing plant samples or placing them in a vacuum.

Earth Day

Tackling the climate crisis and achieving an equitable clean energy future are among the biggest challenges of our time. 

The Energy Exascale Earth System Model project reliably simulates aspects of earth system variability and projects decadal changes that will critically impact the U.S. energy sector in the future. A new version of the model delivers twice the performance of its predecessor. Credit: E3SM, Dept. of Energy

A new version of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM, is two times faster than an earlier version released in 2018.

The students analyzed diatom images like this one to compare wild and genetically modified strains of these organisms. Credit: Alison Pawlicki/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy.

Students often participate in internships and receive formal training in their chosen career fields during college, but some pursue professional development opportunities even earlier.

CellSight allows for rapid mass spectrometry of individual cells. Credit: John Cahill, Oak Ridge National Laboratory/U.S. Dept of Energy

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received five 2019 R&D 100 Awards, increasing the lab’s total to 221 since the award’s inception in 1963.

Laccaria bicolor is fruiting aboveground and colonizing the Populus deltoides plant root system belowground in a greenhouse setting.

A team of scientists led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered the specific gene that controls an important symbiotic relationship between plants and soil fungi, and successfully facilitated the symbiosis in a plant that