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Media Contacts
![Gina Tourassi. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-12/2023-P18395%5B30%5D_1.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=pTv9bdLA)
Effective Dec. 4, Gina Tourassi will assume responsibilities as associate laboratory director for the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
![2023 Battelle Distinguished Inventors](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/23-G07641-Battelle-Distinguished-Inventor-graphic-pcg_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=uhmqAKgT)
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.
![Frontier, the fastest supercomputer in the world, provides expansive and energy-efficient power, which gives scientists the capability to train large AI models in a responsible way.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/Frontier.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=Xugo8LTI)
ORNL is home to the world's fastest exascale supercomputer, Frontier, which was built in part to facilitate energy-efficient and scalable AI-based algorithms and simulations.
![ORNL researchers Lu Yu and Yaocai Bai examine vials that contain a chemical solution that causes the cobalt and lithium to separate from a spent battery, followed by a second stage when cobalt precipitates in the bottom. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/2023-P12386_0.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=CVJOHRVM)
Used lithium-ion batteries from cell phones, laptops and a growing number of electric vehicles are piling up, but options for recycling them remain limited mostly to burning or chemically dissolving shredded batteries.
![The Frontier exascale supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/52117623843_512fd5631b_c.jpg?h=58082582&itok=N8ldUZ5g)
ORNL has joined a global consortium of scientists from federal laboratories, research institutes, academia and industry to address the challenges of building large-scale artificial intelligence systems and advancing trustworthy and reliable AI for
![Conceptual art depicts machine learning finding an ideal material for capacitive energy storage. Its carbon framework (black) has functional groups with oxygen (pink) and nitrogen (turquoise). Credit: Tao Wang/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/Press%20release%20image_0.jpg?h=706c9a24&itok=zX1lC5ud)
Guided by machine learning, chemists at ORNL designed a record-setting carbonaceous supercapacitor material that stores four times more energy than the best commercial material.
![ORNL scientists developed a method that improves the accuracy of the CRISPR Cas9 gene editing tool used to modify microbes for renewable fuels and chemicals production. This research draws on the lab’s expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. Credit: Philip Gray/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/CRISPR%20Quantum%20AI_2_23-G07105-DOE-BER-BESSD-comms-graphic-pcg_2.jpg?h=847b7ff0&itok=WD2dBsAC)
Scientists at ORNL used their expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and bioengineering to improve how CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools work on organisms like microbes that can be modified to produce renewable fuels and chemicals.
![Two hybrid poplar plants, middle and right, engineered with the PtrXB38 hub gene exhibited a drastic increase in root and callus formation compared with a wild-type control plant, left. Credit: Tao Yao/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/Poplar%20root%20story%20tip%20as%20JPEG_0.jpg?h=7bc542ef&itok=HNxpeEt6)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists identified a gene “hotspot” in the poplar tree that triggers dramatically increased root growth. The discovery supports development of better bioenergy crops and other plants that can thrive in difficult conditions while storing more carbon belowground.
![Researchers have shown how an all-solid lithium-based electrolyte material can be used to develop fast charging, long-range batteries for electric vehicles that are also safer than conventional designs. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/Lui_solid_state_0.png?h=27870e4a&itok=hd5IA-bH)
Currently, the biggest hurdle for electric vehicles, or EVs, is the development of advanced battery technology to extend driving range, safety and reliability.
![When exposed to radiation, electrons produced within molten zinc chloride, or ZnCl2, can be observed in three distinct singly occupied molecular orbital states, plus a more diffuse, delocalized state. Credit: Hung H. Nguyen/University of Iowa](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/bernard-wide_0.png?h=dba5e3ef&itok=DgnYZ_Vy)
In a finding that helps elucidate how molten salts in advanced nuclear reactors might behave, scientists have shown how electrons interacting with the ions of the molten salt can form three states with different properties. Understanding these states can help predict the impact of radiation on the performance of salt-fueled reactors.