Jesse Labbé: Innovating biotechnology for energy, security and health
The BIO-SANS instrument, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, is the latest neutron scattering instrument to be retrofitted with state-of-the-art robotics and custom software. The sophisticated upgrade quadruples the number of samples the instrument can measure automatically and significantly reduces the need for human assistance.
The new section of tunnel will provide the turning and connecting point for the accelerator beamline between the existing particle accelerator at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and the planned Second Target Station, or STS. When complete, the PPU project will increase accelerator power up to 2.8 megawatts from its current record-breaking 1.7 megawatts of beam power.
Thomas Proffen, a neutron scattering scientist at ORNL and founder of Oak Ridge Computer Science Girls, was recognized with an award from the National Center for Women & Information Technology, or NCWIT. In addition, one of his students received a national honor from the organization.
ORNL’s Erin Webb is co-leading a new Circular Bioeconomy Systems Convergent Research Initiative focused on advancing production and use of renewable carbon from Tennessee to meet societal needs.
An international team using neutrons set the first benchmark (one nanosecond) for a polymer-electrolyte and lithium-salt mixture. Findings could produce safer, more powerful lithium batteries.
The Neutron Scattering Society of America, or NSSA, recognized Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Ke An and Ken Herwig as fellows for their outstanding contributions to neutron scattering.
Jens Dilling has been named associate laboratory director for the Neutron Sciences Directorate at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, effective April 1.
Scientists at ORNL have developed 3-D-printed collimator techniques that can be used to custom design collimators that better filter out noise during different types of neutron scattering experiments
Astrophysicists at the State University of New York, Stony Brook and University of California, Berkeley, used the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Summit supercomputer to compare models of X-ray bursts in 2D and 3D.
In a win for chemistry, inventors at ORNL have designed a closed-loop path for synthesizing an exceptionally tough carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer, or CFRP, and later recovering all of its starting materials.