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orest ecologist KC Cushman uses remote-sensing platforms — ground, air- and space-based — to improve understanding of how southeastern forests recover from disturbances such as drought and wildfire. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Cushman, a Liane B. Russell Fellow at ORNL, has been studying trees and forests in an effort to help humans care for them and improve the health of the planet. Cushman’s fellowship research at ORNL aligns with that, utilizing ground, air and space platforms to study trees and forests in the Southeast. 

Fengqi “Frank” Li brings computational and architectural expertise to building energy modeling in ORNL’s Grid Interactive Controls group. Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Although he built his career around buildings, Fengqi “Frank” Li likes to break down walls. Li was trained as an architect, but he doesn’t box himself in. Currently he is working as a computational developer at ORNL. But Li considers himself a designer. To him, that’s less a box than a plane – a landscape scattered with ideas, like destinations on a map that can be connected in different ways. 

Chelsea Chen, polymer physicist at ORNL, stands in front of an eight-channel potentiostat and temperature chamber used for battery and electrochemical testing. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Chelsea Chen, a polymer physicist at ORNL, is studying ion transport in solid electrolytes that could help electric vehicle battery charges last longer.

Ilenne Del Valle is merging her expertise in synthetic biology and environmental science to develop new technologies to help scientists better understand and engineer ecosystems for climate resilience. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept of Energy

Ilenne Del Valle is merging her expertise in synthetic biology and environmental science to develop new technologies to help scientists better understand and engineer ecosystems for climate resilience. 

Louise Stevenson uses her expertise as an environmental toxicologist to evaluate the effects of stressors such as chemicals and other contaminants on aquatic systems. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept of Energy

Louise Stevenson uses her expertise as an environmental toxicologist to evaluate the effects of stressors such as chemicals and other contaminants on aquatic systems.

Jennifer Lively

Jennifer Ladd-Lively has been leading the Electrical Systems Engineering and Integration Group since September, bringing with her the organizational and time management skills learned through several years as a research scientist and project manager. The group she leads specializes in designing a...

Adian Cook standing in front of GROVER autonomous bus

Arriving at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in late 2017 as a vehicle system engineer, Adian Cook could not foresee then that he would soon be the example of what happens to a research career when one is in the right place at the right time. But perfect timing is exactly what transpired for Cook as me...

Clarice Phelps

More than 70 years ago, United States Navy Captain Hyman Rickover learned the ins and outs of nuclear science and reactor technology at the Clinton Training School at what would eventually become the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Rickover applied his knowl...

Sheng Dai innovates chemical separations, nanomaterials synthesis, and catalytic interfaces for energy applications at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and is the lab’s most prolific author.
Sheng Dai, the most prolific author ever at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had no intention of pursuing a career in science as a young man; he wanted to paint instead. But he couldn’t help noticing that the stones artists carved with their initials and ...
Matthew Ryder is researching next-generation materials using neutron scattering as a Clifford G. Shull Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Neutron Sciences Directorate. (Image credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin)

Scientists and engineers are always searching for ways to solve the world’s biggest challenges, such as reducing carbon emissions, creating more effective cancer treatments, and increasing energy efficiency in electronics. Early career scientist Matthew R. Ryder, a Clifford G. ...