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Oak Ridge National Laboratory materials scientist Zhili Feng, left, looks on as senior technician Doug Kyle operates a welding robot inside a robotic welding cell. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense teamed up to create a series of weld filler materials that could dramatically improve high-strength steel repair in vehicles, bridges and pipelines.

From left to right, Cortney Piper, executive director of the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council; Susan Hubbard, ORNL deputy for science and technology; Dan Miller, innovation Crossroads program lead; and Mike Paulus, ORNL director of technology transfer, attend the Innovation Crossroads Showcase at the Knoxville Chamber on Sept. 22. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A crowd of investors and supporters turned out for last week’s Innovation Crossroads Showcase at the Knoxville Chamber as part of Innov865 Week. Sponsored by ORNL and the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council, the event celebrated deep-tech entrepreneurs and the Oak Ridge Corridor as a growing energy innovation hub for the nation.

Larry Allard

Larry Allard, a distinguished research staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named a Fellow of the Microanalysis Society.

ORNL mechanical engineer Marm Dixit focuses his research on solid-state batteries and their potential use in electric vehicles. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Mechanical engineer Marm Dixit’s work is all about getting electricity to flow efficiently from one end of a solid-state battery to the other. It’s a high-stakes problem

Bruce Warmack is using his physics and electrical engineering expertise to analyze advanced sensors for the power grid on a new testbed he developed at the Distributed Energy Communications and Controls Laboratory at ORNL. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Bruce Warmack has been fascinated by science since his mother finally let him have a chemistry set at the age of nine. He’d been pestering her for one since he was six.

ORNL’s Marcel Demarteau inspects experiments along Neutrino Alley at the Spallation Neutron Source, which makes neutrinos as a byproduct. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Marcel Demarteau is director of the Physics Division at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For topics from nuclear structure to astrophysics, he shapes ORNL’s physics research agenda.

ORNL researchers in advanced manufacturing, materials science and engineering collaborated to produce face shields and reusable mask molds so that industry can quickly mass produce. Credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has formally launched the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII), a $111 million public-private partnership.

Suman Debnath is using simulation algorithms to accelerate understanding of the modern power grid and enhance its reliability and resilience. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Planning for a digitized, sustainable smart power grid is a challenge to which Suman Debnath is using not only his own applied mathematics expertise, but also the wider communal knowledge made possible by his revival of a local chapter of the IEEE professional society.

These fuel assembly brackets, manufactured by ORNL in partnership with Framatome and Tennessee Valley Authority, are the first 3D-printed safety-related components to be inserted into a nuclear power plant. Credit: Fred List/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The Transformational Challenge Reactor, or TCR, a microreactor built using 3D printing and other new advanced technologies, could be operational by 2024.

Jianlin Li employs ORNL’s world-class battery research facility to validate the innovative safety technology. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Soteria Battery Innovation Group has exclusively licensed and optioned a technology developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed to eliminate thermal runaway in lithium ion batteries due to mechanical damage.