May 29, 2007 — Stephen E. Nagler and Richard J. Norby have earned the highest level of recognition for career achievements in science and technology leadership at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Nagler, chief among the lab's neutron scattering scientists, and Norby, who leads the lab's experimental ecology effort, are the newest UT-Battelle Corporate Fellows at ORNL.
"Steve and Rich are truly deserving of this prestigious distinction," ORNL Director Jeff Wadsworth said. "I congratulate them for their leadership and service at ORNL and their contributions to the scientific community."
Nagler received his B.S. (1978), M.S. (1979), and Ph.D. (1982) in physics from the University of Toronto. He served two years as a visiting scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, N.Y., and joined the physics faculty at the University of Florida in 1984.
He joined the former Solid State Division's Neutron Scattering Group in 1995 and served as Group Leader for Neutron Spectrometry from 1996 to 2005. During that period, as interim director of the High Flux Isotope Reactor Center for Neutron Scattering, Nagler guided the center through a critical DOE review while ensuring research productivity, successful instrument upgrades and integration of neutron scattering at HFIR and the Spallation Neutron Source.
In 2006, he was named Chief Scientist for the new Neutron Scattering Science Division to oversee development and implementation of strategies for ORNL leadership in neutron sciences. Nagler is internationally known as a leader in the investigation of magnetic excitations and quantum critical behavior in materials. He has made pioneering contributions to the study of nonequilibrium systems, quantum fluctuations, spin gap systems and excitations in condensed matter.
He is principal investigator for the $17 million SEQUOIA spectrometer at SNS, which will enable unprecedented materials studies impacting high temperature superconductors, alloys, thermoelectric materials and other areas.
Named ORNL Scientist of the Year in 1998 and Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2000, Nagler serves on numerous national and international committees and is a member of the Editorial Board of Physical Review Letters.
Richard Norby joined the Environmental Sciences Division as a postdoctoral research fellow in 1981 and was appointed to the ORNL research staff in 1985. He received his B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College in 1972 and his Ph.D. in forestry and botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981. He is currently the Science Team Leader for Experimental Ecology in the Environmental Sciences Division. Norby is one of the leading researchers in the world on effects of increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on terrestrial ecosystems. He is a pioneer in large-scale manipulative field experiments and led the design and implementation of the ORNL Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) facility, which has established the importance of understanding allocation of carbon to root systems as an ecosystem response to elevated carbon dioxide levels.
He was one of the earliest researchers to recognize the crucial importance of root and soil processes in mediating the response of trees to carbon dioxide, and his research has profoundly influenced the direction of global carbon studies. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Environmental Section Editor of New Phytologist.
In 2005, Norby was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the New Phytologist Trust, the first American to be so honored. He has served on numerous national committees including the Science Steering Group for the North American Carbon Program, the Technical Advisory Committee for the National Institute for Global Environmental Change, and the Scientific Steering Committee for the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network on Terrestrial Ecosystem Responses to Atmospheric and Climate Change.