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Burak Ozpineci is a globally recognized leader in power electronics research. He was named an ORNL Corporate Fellow in fall 2021. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Burak Ozpineci started out at ORNL working on a novel project: introducing silicon carbide into power electronics for more efficient electric vehicles. Twenty years later, the car he drives contains those same components.

Erdem Asa is leveraging his power electronics expertise to adapt ORNL’s wireless charging technology to unmanned aerial vehicles. Credit: Erdem Asa/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Having co-developed the power electronics behind ORNL’s compact, high-level wireless power technology for automobiles, Erdem Asa is looking to the skies to apply the same breakthrough to aviation.

Ross Wang is leveraging his expertise in civil engineering, transportation systems, data analytics, and modeling and simulation in a variety of mobility projects at ORNL, including unsnarling traffic on some of the nation’s most congested roadways. Credit: ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy

Ross Wang has been intent on resolving traffic jams since he rode a city bus every day through 40 minutes of traffic to get to his elementary school. That daily journey left an impression that would shape his career.

Martin Wissink of ORNL’s Buildings and Transportation Science Division applies neutrons and other diagnostic tools at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in pursuit of cleaner, sustainable and more flexible transportation technologies. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept of Energy

For a researcher who started out in mechanical engineering with a focus on engine combustion, Martin Wissink has learned a lot about neutrons on the job

Associate Laboratory Director Kathy McCarthy heads the ORNL directorate that manages proto-MPEX, a linear plasma device that informs the development of the MPEX tool for study of fusion materials. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

From the helm of a one-of-a-kind organization that brings nuclear fusion and fission expertise together to pave the way to expanding carbon-free energy, Kathy McCarthy can trace the first step of her engineering career back to

Oscar Martinez loads a special form capsule into the leak tester for a helium leak test in the packaging facility of the National Transportation Research Center. Credit: Jason Richards/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

As program manager for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Package Testing Program, Oscar Martinez enjoys finding and fixing technical issues.

Default image of ORNL entry sign

If you ask the staff and researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory how they were first referred to the lab, you will get an extremely varied list of responses. Some may have come here as student interns, some grew up in the area and knew the lab by ...

Lauren Garrison

The materials inside a fusion reactor must withstand one of the most extreme environments in science, with temperatures in the thousands of degrees Celsius and a constant bombardment of neutron radiation and deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen, from the volatile plasma at th...

Amy Moore is a postdoctoral researcher in the Transportation Planning and Decision Science Group at ORNL.

Amy Moore has found that her pursuit of several degrees and certificates in a variety of subjects is serving her well as she uses her expertise in transportation planning, geographic information science, and information technology to develop intelligent mobility solutions at ORNL. ...

Composites scientist and engineer Vlastimil Kunc with the latest large-scale 3Dprinter at the MDF.

Vlastimil Kunc grew up in a family of scientists where his natural curiosity was encouraged—an experience that continues to drive his research today in polymer composite additive manufacturing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “I’ve been interested in the science of composites si...