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2023 Battelle Distinguished Inventors

Four scientists affiliated with ORNL were named Battelle Distinguished Inventors during the lab’s annual Innovation Awards on Dec. 1 in recognition of being granted 14 or more United States patents.

ORNL’s David Sholl is director of the new DOE Energy Earthshot Non-Equilibrium Energy Transfer for Efficient Reactions center to help decarbonize the industrial chemical industry. Credit: Genevieve Martin, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL has been selected to lead an Energy Earthshot Research Center, or EERC, focused on developing chemical processes that use sustainable methods instead of burning fossil fuels to radically reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions to stem climate change and limit the crisis of a rapidly warming planet.
 

A new nanoscience study led by an ORNL quantum researcher takes a big-picture look at how scientists study materials at the smallest scales. Credit: Getty Images

A new nanoscience study led by a researcher at ORNL takes a big-picture look at how scientists study materials at the smallest scales.

ORNL seismic researcher Chengping Chai placed seismic sensors on the ground at various distances from an ORNL nuclear reactor to learn whether they could detect its operating state. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Like most scientists, Chengping Chai is not content with the surface of things: He wants to probe beyond to learn what’s really going on. But in his case, he is literally building a map of the world beneath, using seismic and acoustic data that reveal when and where the earth moves.

Technology Innovation Program

Five technologies invented by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been selected for targeted investment through ORNL’s Technology Innovation Program.

ORNL’s Joseph Lukens runs experiments in an optics lab. Credit: Jason Richards/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists’ increasing mastery of quantum mechanics is heralding a new age of innovation. Technologies that harness the power of nature’s most minute scale show enormous potential across the scientific spectrum

High voltage power lines carry electricity generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority to ORNL. Credit: Dobie Gillispie/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL and the Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, are joining forces to advance decarbonization technologies from discovery through deployment through a new memorandum of understanding, or MOU.

An international team of researchers used Summit to model spin, charge and pair-density waves in cuprates, a type of copper alloy, to explore the materials’ superconducting properties. The results revealed new insights into the relationships between these dynamics as superconductivity develops. Credit: Jason Smith/ORNL

A study led by researchers at ORNL used the nation’s fastest supercomputer to close in on the answer to a central question of modern physics that could help conduct development of the next generation of energy technologies.

An artist's rendering of the Ultium Cells battery cell production facility to be built in Spring Hill, Tennessee, which will employ 1,300 people. Recognizing the unique expertise of their organizations, ORNL, TVA, and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development have been working together for several years to bring startups developing battery technologies for EVs and established automotive firms to Tennessee. Credit: Ultium Cells

ORNL, TVA and TNECD were recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium for their impactful partnership that resulted in a record $2.3 billion investment by Ultium Cells, a General Motors and LG Energy Solution joint venture, to build a battery cell manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Ten scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are among the world’s most highly cited researchers. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Ten scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are among the world’s most highly cited researchers, according to a bibliometric analysis conducted by the scientific publication analytics firm Clarivate.