The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has named Marcel Demarteau as Physics Division Director, effective June 17.
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![ORNL-led collaboration solves a beta-decay puzzle with advanced nuclear models](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-03/decay_coverSize_4%5B21%5D_0.jpg?h=843037ec&itok=BU6x1GD8)
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 11, 2019—An international collaboration including scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory solved a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei
![ORNL astrophysicist Raph Hix models the inner workings of supernovae on the world’s most powerful supercomputers.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-02/hix1.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=qCY4BdN6)
More than 1800 years ago, Chinese astronomers puzzled over the sudden appearance of a bright “guest star” in the sky, unaware that they were witnessing the cosmic forge of a supernova, an event repeated countless times scattered across the universe.
![mirrorAsymmetry-NPDGamma_ORNL.jpg mirrorAsymmetry-NPDGamma_ORNL.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/mirrorAsymmetry-NPDGamma_ORNL.jpg?itok=POtcSu48)
A team of scientists has for the first time measured the elusive weak interaction between protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom. They had chosen the simplest nucleus consisting of one neutron and one proton for the study.
![Leah Broussard leads a study of neutron decay to understand correlations between electrons and antineutrinos as well as subtle distortions in the electron energy spectrum.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/IMAGE%201_%202018-P08260_0.jpg?h=65b96206&itok=sitguWk-)
Leah Broussard, a physicist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has so much fun exploring the neutron that she alternates between calling it her “laboratory” and “playground” for understanding the universe.
![ORNL’s Jeremy Smith is studying the recalcitrance of biomass to enable cheaper, more efficient biofuels and other high-value chemicals. ORNL’s Jeremy Smith is studying the recalcitrance of biomass to enable cheaper, more efficient biofuels and other high-value chemicals.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/Fig3x.jpg?itok=qJnNAf0O)
Seven researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been chosen by the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment, also known as INCITE, program to lead scientific investigations that require the
![Physics_silicon-detectors.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/Physics_silicon-detectors.jpg?h=c920d705&itok=Q1fP5ZTi)
Physicists turned to the “doubly magic” tin isotope Sn-132, colliding it with a target at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to assess its properties as it lost a neutron to become Sn-131.
![ORNL researchers Gaute Hagen, Masaaki Matsuda, and Parans Paranthaman has been elected fellow of the American Physical Society.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2018APSfellows.jpg?h=fb940651&itok=IDeULe_a)
Three researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society (APS).
![ORNL Image](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/chipps%201.jpg?itok=vCX2NmWA)
As a young girl Kelly Chipps believed she would become a field biologist. Then, in her junior year of high school, she studied physics with a teacher so in love with the subject that Chipps fell in love with it, too.
![Yu collaborates on the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, which set the stage for a future experiment to search for the signal of neutrinoless double-beta decay. Single beta-decay—in which a proton becomes a neutron and emits an antineutrino and a fast-moving electro Yu collaborates on the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, which set the stage for a future experiment to search for the signal of neutrinoless double-beta decay. Single beta-decay—in which a proton becomes a neutron and emits an antineutrino and a fast-moving electro](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/IMAGE%201_MAIN%20IMAGE%20%20Yu_main-image-revPNT4649.jpg?itok=sH-1q7s6)
Chang-Hong Yu of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory fell in love with running in 2008 and has since completed 38 marathons or longer-distance races.