Five from ORNL elected fellows of American Association for the Advancement of Science

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 21, 2017 – Five researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

AAAS, the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, honors fellows in recognition of “their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.”

Budhendra Bhaduri, leader of the Geographic Information Science and Technology group in the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, was elected by the AAAS section on geology and geography for “distinguished contributions to geographic information science, especially for developing novel geocomputational approaches to create high resolution geographic data sets to improve human security.”

Bhaduri’s research focuses on novel implementation of geospatial science and technology, namely the integration of population dynamics, geographic data science and scalable geocomputation to address the modeling and simulation of complex urban systems at the intersection of energy, human dynamics and urban sustainability. He is also the director of ORNL’s Urban Dynamics Institute, a founding member of the DOE’s Geospatial Sciences Steering Committee and was named an ORNL corporate fellow in 2011.

Sheng Dai, leader of the Nanomaterials Chemistry group in the Chemical Sciences Division, was elected by the AAAS section on chemistry for “significant and sustained contribution in pioneering and developing soft template synthesis and ionothermal synthesis approaches to functional nanoporous materials for energy-related applications.”

Dai’s research group synthesizes and characterizes novel functional nanomaterials, ionic liquids and porous materials for applications in catalysis, efficient chemical separation processes and energy storage systems. He is the director of the Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport (FIRST) Center, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center, and was named an ORNL corporate fellow in 2011.

Mitchel Doktycz, leader of the Biological and Nanoscale Systems Group in the Biosciences Division, was elected by the AAAS section on biological sciences for “distinguished contributions to the field of biological sciences, particularly advancing the use of nanotechnologies for characterizing and interfacing to biological systems.”

Doktycz is also a researcher at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and specializes in the development of analytical technologies for post-genomics studies, molecular and cellular imaging techniques and nanomaterials used to study and mimic biological systems. He holds a joint faculty appointment in the UT-ORNL Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education and the Genome Science and Technology Program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Bobby G. Sumpter, deputy director of the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), was elected by the AAAS section on physics for “distinguished contributions to the field of computational and theoretical chemical physics, particularly for developing a multifaceted approach having direct connections to experimental research in nanoscience and soft matter.”

Sumpter’s research combines modern computational capabilities with chemistry, physics and materials science for new innovations in soft matter science, nanomaterials and high-capacity energy storage. He is the leader of both the Computational Chemical and Materials Science Group in the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division and the Nanomaterials Theory Institute at CNMS, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. He was named an ORNL corporate fellow in 2013, is chair of the Corporate Fellows Council and holds a joint faculty appointment in the UT-ORNL Bredesen Center.

Robert Wagner, director of the National Transportation Research Center in the Energy and Transportation Science Division, was elected by the AAAS section on engineering for “distinguished contributions to the fields of combustion and fuel science, particularly for seminal research on combustion instabilities and abnormal combustion phenomena.”

Wagner is the lead of the Sustainable Mobility theme for ORNL’s Urban Dynamics Institute and the co-lead of the DOE’s Co-Optimization of Fuels and Engines Initiative, which brings together the unique research and development capabilities of nine national labs and industry partners to accelerate the introduction of efficient, clean, affordable and scalable high-performance fuels and engines. He also holds a joint faculty appointment in the UT-ORNL Bredesen Center and is a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers International and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The new fellows will be formally recognized in February at the 2018 AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas.

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://energy.gov/science/.