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![Yue Yuan, Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellow at ORNL, is researching ways to create new materials to help the environment. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-04/Yue%20Yuan.2022-P14004_0.jpg?h=b2d9f031&itok=kJRZuKF2)
Growing up in China, Yue Yuan stood beneath the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, built to harness the world’s third-longest river. Her father brought her to Three Gorges Dam every year as it was being constructed across the Yangtze River so she could witness its progress.
![Yanwen Zhang](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-06/2018-P06460.png?h=854a7be2&itok=i4P7m_Rx)
In the search to create materials that can withstand extreme radiation, Yanwen Zhang, a researcher at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, says that materials scientists must think outside the box.
![Scanning probe microscopes use an atom-sharp tip—only a few nanometers thick—to image materials on a nanometer length scale. The probe tip, invisible to the eye, is attached to a cantilever (pictured) that moves across material surfaces like the tone arm on a record player. Credit: Genevieve Martin/Oak Ridge National Laboratory; U.S. Dept. of Energy.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-01/2019-P15115.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=o69jyoNw)
Liam Collins was drawn to study physics to understand “hidden things” and honed his expertise in microscopy so that he could bring them to light.