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Stylized illustration of figures. Credit: Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL is among seventeen U.S. national laboratories and many prominent publishers, journals and other organizations in scientific publishing that announced today the beginning of a partnership to support name change requests from researchers on past published papers.

From left to right are Beth Armstrong, Govindarajan Muralidharan and Andrew Payzant.

ASM International recently elected three researchers from ORNL as 2021 fellows. Selected were Beth Armstrong and Govindarajan Muralidharan, both from ORNL’s Material Sciences and Technology Division, and Andrew Payzant from the Neutron Scattering Division.

This spring, Brood X cicadas emerged from the ground after 17 years burrowed and swarmed across the eastern United States, leaving a trail of exoskeletons and echoes of mating calls. Cicadas emerge in such large quantities to withstand predation and successfully maintain their populations, and trees actually play a key role in their life cycle. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

On the road leading to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, drivers may notice that many of the green trees lining the entrance to the lab are dappled with brown leaves. Just weeks past the summer solstice, this phenomenon is out of place and is in fact evidence of another natural occurrence: cicada “flagging.”

Researchers studying secondary metabolites in the fungus Aspergillus flavus, pictured, found unique mixes of metabolites corresponding to genetically distinct populations. The finding suggests local environmental conditions play a key role in secondary metabolite production, influencing the discovery of drugs and other useful compounds. Credit: Tomás Allen Rush/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy.

Scientists at ORNL and the University of Wisconsin–Madison have discovered that genetically distinct populations within the same species of fungi can produce unique mixes of secondary metabolites, which are organic compounds with applications in

From top to bottom respectively, alloys were made without nanoprecipitates or with coarse or fine nanoprecipitates to assess effects of their sizes and spacings on mechanical behavior. Credit: Michelle Lehman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have found a way to simultaneously increase the strength and ductility of an alloy by introducing tiny precipitates into its matrix and tuning their size and spacing.

Jens Dilling has been selected director of institutional strategic planning for ORNL and will join the lab on August 9. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Jens Dilling has been selected director of institutional strategic planning for ORNL and will join the lab on August 9. 

ORNL’s Josh Michener, a microbiologist and metabolic engineer, led the discovery of a useful new enzyme that breaks down stubborn bonds in lignin, a polymer found in plants that typically becomes waste during bioconversion. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

In a step toward increasing the cost-effectiveness of renewable biofuels and bioproducts, scientists at ORNL discovered a microbial enzyme that degrades tough-to-break bonds in lignin, a waste product of biorefineries.

Brian Davison portrait

In a long career full of scientific accomplishments, Brian Davison counts among his many successes the formation of ORNL’s LGBTQIA+ employee group and helping gay and lesbian staff at the lab

Benjamin Sulman, a scientist in ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division, creates Earth system models that simulate how plants, microbes and soils interact and influence the cycling of carbon, water and nutrients in their environment. His work aims to helps researchers across disciplines better understand complex, rapidly changing ecosystems, including coastal wetlands and Arctic permafrost soils. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

As rising global temperatures alter ecosystems worldwide, the need to accurately simulate complex environmental processes under evolving conditions is more urgent than ever.

Kathy McCarthy, associate laboratory director for Fusion and Fission Energy and Science, has been elected fellow of the American Nuclear Society. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Kathy McCarthy, associate laboratory director for Fusion and Fission Energy and Science at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected fellow of the American Nuclear Society for her nationally and internationally recognized leadership in nuclear energy and fusion.