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At the confluence of energy and ecology is where Henriette “Yetta” Jager has found her calling. A senior scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division, Yetta uses models to look for win-win opportunities to produce more energy without harming fish and wildlife. Yetta’s research for the US D...

Brian Davison
Brian Davison has advice for anyone planning a long career in science, gleaned from more than three decades in the field: Appreciate the ‘eureka’ moments, both big and small. “You don’t find joy every day in any job, but if I find a moment at least once or twice a month, it make...
ORNL bioscience researcher Jerry Tuskan had an early interest in plant genetics.

It’s been 10 years since the Department of Energy first established a BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and researcher Gerald “Jerry” Tuskan has used that time and the lab’s and center’s resources and tools to make good on his college dreams of usi...

ORNL’s Udaya Kalluri brings lab resources together for studies of plants.
Udaya Kalluri brings considerable energy to her plant research at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory—a trait colleagues describe as “contagious enthusiasm.” Kalluri’s zeal was evident even in her postdoc days at ORNL, when she won lab-directed research fun...
Omar Abdelaziz in ORNL’s Maximum Building Energy Efficiency Research Laboratory (MAXLAB). Photo credit: Jason Richards

As a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Omar Abdelaziz took a class in an unfamiliar topic: sustainable energy. It was a choice that would change the path of his life and career. Ten years later, Abdelaziz’ passion for healthy ecosystems and his hands-on work around ...

Madhu Chinthavali

While trying to decide on an area of technical study as an undergraduate, Madhu Chinthavali visited labs at his college in India. One particular lab where an electrical engineer had devised various motor controls caught his eye. "It wasn't the motor that drew my attention," Ma...

ORNL researcher Peter Thornton "in the field" for the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment - Arctic.
The summertime temperatures in the North Slope and Seward Peninsula of Alaska rarely reach higher than 50 degrees F and the perpetually dark winters fall below minus 20 F. It is a brutal environment for any researcher studying the Arctic ecosystem, much less a supercomputer modele...
ORNL’s Sarah Cousineau is responsible for overseeing and coordinating beam physics research efforts for the Spallation Neutron Source accelerator.
Accelerator physicist Sarah Cousineau has dedicated her career to unraveling the world’s mysteries through physics. A large part of solving those mysteries, she says, means getting the next generation of physicists ready for the same challenge. Cousineau is a group leader in th...
ORNL researcher Xiaobing Liu  works in the laboratory’s Building Technologies Research and Integration Center.

As a boy growing up in China, Xiaobing Liu knew all about Oak Ridge and the World War II Manhattan Project. He had no idea that he would one day work at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Secret City’s successor. Liu is a lead researcher in geothermal heat pump (GHP) techn...

Melissa Allen’s work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is focused on urban infrastructure and atmospheric transport, creating models to determine the effects of temperature and climate changes on human activity.
Melissa Allen, a researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is guided by her curiosity and is inspired to pursue what she loves – music, flying and climate science. And she credits her family and many mentors who have helped her along the way. Gro...