December 9, 2005 — Stephen Pennycook, a UT-Battelle corporate fellow and group leader in the Condensed Matter Sciences Division of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was honored tonight as the recipient of the UT-Battelle 2005 Director's Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology during the laboratory's Awards Night ceremony at the Knoxville Convention Center.
Pennycook was honored for outstanding management skills in building a widely recognized world-class electron microscopy program, recruiting and mentoring top personnel and securing substantial increases in DOE funding to support this initiative.
He has earned several international awards for his work in solid-state science. Pennycook is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Pennycook earned bachelor's and master's degrees in natural sciences - along with a doctorate in physics - from the University of Cambridge. He and his wife, Margaret, have two sons and live in Oak Ridge.
Betty Evans of the Nuclear Science and Technology Division earned the Director's Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Laboratory Operations for her multi-year leadership and personal commitment to the disposition of legacy wastes and to the decontamination and refurbishment of laboratory space.
Budhendra Bhaduri of the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division earned the Director's Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Community Service for his efforts toward enhancement and enrichment of the lives of the laboratory's international staff members while becoming an internationally known spokesperson for the important role of geospatial science in support of national and global missions.
The Director's Award for Team Accomplishment was presented to Lawrence Allard and Douglas Blom of the Metals and Ceramics Division; Lynn Degenhardt and John Mayo of the Facilities Management Division; and William Sides Jr. of the Condensed Matter Sciences Division for exceptional collaboration in the conceptualization, plan, design and supervision of construction of a unique, state-of-the-art environmentally stable laboratory that ensures optimum operation of advanced electron optical instruments.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.