The researchers are David Christen of ORNL's Condensed Matter Sciences Division and Parans Paranthaman of the Chemical Sciences Division.
The journal, published by the Institute of Physics of Bristol, England, is a multidisciplinary publication for papers on all aspects of superconductivity, including theories and breakthroughs that make enabling technology possible.
Christen a group leader, has won numerous awards since joining the laboratory in 1974. He is a 2001 co-recipient of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of Power Technologies Research Partnerships Award, a 2001 co-recipient of a Federal Laboratory Consortium Award of Excellence in Technology Transfer and a 2000 co-recipient of the University of Tennessee-Battelle LLC R&D Accomplishment Award.
He is a co-inventor in the rolling-assisted-biaxially-textured substrates (RABiTS) process to fabricate high-performance superconducting wires, which earned an R&D 100 Award in 1999. Among other awards, Christen also earned a 1997 NOVA Award from Lockheed Martin for teamwork and an American Museum of Science and Energy Tribute to Tennessee Technology Award. He was a co-recipient of the ORNL Scientist of the Year Award in 1997.
Christen earned a bachelors degree in engineering physics from the University of Illinois and a master's degree and doctorate in physics from Michigan State University. Christen also completed a post-doctorate fellowship at Michigan State.
He and his wife, Sandy, are residents of Oak Ridge. They have three adult children.
Paranthaman, who joined ORNL in 1993, is a senior research staff member in the Chemical Sciences Division. He recently was named as a distinguished inventor at ORNL by the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio. Battelle partners with the University of Tennessee to form UT-Battelle, which manages ORNL for DOE.
Along with Christen, Paranthaman shared the 1999 R&D 100 Award for co-inventing the RABiTS technology. He has written two highly cited papers that appeared in the publication Physica C. Paranthaman also authored a highly-cited paper that has appeared in the journal Superconductor Science and Technology.
In 2001, Paranthaman was a member of the RABiTS group that earned a Federal Laboratory Consortium Award and an Energy 100 Award from DOE. He also was with the group that earned the 1997 Lockheed Martin NOVA Award for technical achievement. That same year, he was named Lockheed Martin Scientist of the Year.
Paranthaman earned a doctorate in materials science and solid state chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas Center for Materials Science and Engineering and a research associate in the superconductivities laboratories at the University of Colorado.
Paranthaman and his wife, Sathiya - a pre-kindergarten teacher at Oak Ridge Nursery School - have two daughters, Nithya and Bhavya.
ORNL is a multiprogram science and technology laboratory managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.