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Media Contacts
![Bryan Piatkowski is a Liane Russell Distinguished Fellow at ORNL developing a framework to better understand the genetic underpinnings of desirable plant traits so they may be used to create climate-resilient crops for food, bioenergy and carbon sequestration. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept of Energy.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-03/Piatkowski%20outdoors%202021-P06111_0.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=bhUc5-NN)
Bryan Piatkowski, a Liane Russell Distinguished Fellow in the Biosciences Division at ORNL, is exploring the genetic pathways for traits such as stress tolerance in several plant species important for carbon sequestration
![Chunliu Zhuo is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Texas BioDiscovery Institute. Credit: University of North Texas](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-03/20_0302_Dixon-and-Zhuo15.png?h=a49d782d&itok=K0GDwbRk)
A team of researchers working within the Center for Bioenergy Innovation at ORNL has discovered a pathway to encourage a type of lignin formation in plants that could make the processing of crops grown for products such as sustainable jet fuels easier and less costly.
![ORNL biogeochemist Teri O’Meara is focused on improving how coastal systems are represented in global climate models, enabling better predictions about the future of these critical ecosystems. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-03/2022-P00647_0.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=0G7wpXG6)
Surrounded by the mountains of landlocked Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Teri O’Meara is focused on understanding the future of the vitally important ecosystems lining the nation’s coasts.
![ORNL’s Marie Kurz examines the many factors affecting the health of streams and watersheds. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-02/2022-P00380--_1.jpg?h=918d9ab1&itok=3Fxfv-4i)
Spanning no less than three disciplines, Marie Kurz’s title — hydrogeochemist — already gives you a sense of the collaborative, interdisciplinary nature of her research at ORNL.
![ORNL’s Brenda Pracheil, left, and Kristine Moody collect water samples at Melton Hill Lake using a sophisticated instrument that collects DNA in the water to determine fish species and number of fish in the water, which could prove useful for monitoring hydropower impacts. Credit: Carlos Jones, ORNL/U.S Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-01/2020-P17436_0.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=BXPhSslk)
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using a novel approach in determining environmental impacts to aquatic species near hydropower facilities, potentially leading to smarter facility designs that can support electrical grid reliability.
![Results show change in annual aridity for the years 2071-2100 compared to 1985-2014. Brown shadings (negative numbers) indicate drier conditions. Black dots indicate statistical significance at the 90% confidence level. Credit: Jiafu Mao/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-01/aridMap-02_0.jpg?h=a87f0b51&itok=qE0e2qbs)
A new analysis from Oak Ridge National Laboratory shows that intensified aridity, or drier atmospheric conditions, is caused by human-driven increases in greenhouse gas emissions. The findings point to an opportunity to address and potentially reverse the trend by reducing emissions.
![The Energy Exascale Earth System Model project reliably simulates aspects of earth system variability and projects decadal changes that will critically impact the U.S. energy sector in the future. A new version of the model delivers twice the performance of its predecessor. Credit: E3SM, Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-01/E3SM_0.jpg?h=d5571230&itok=lKS66vCl)
A new version of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM, is two times faster than an earlier version released in 2018.
![Biofuels, such as those derived from the switchgrass being harvested in this field in Vonore, Tennessee, are just one of the technology-based solutions that ORNL summit participants identified recently as key to decarbonizing the agriculture sector. Credit: Erin G. Webb, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-01/SwitchgrassVonore_ErinWebb_0.jpg?h=0ad68e88&itok=GNhjrsix)
Energy and sustainability experts from ORNL, industry, universities and the federal government recently identified key focus areas to meet the challenge of successfully decarbonizing the agriculture sector
Scientists studying a valuable, but vulnerable, species of poplar have identified the genetic mechanism responsible for the species’ inability to resist a pervasive and deadly disease. Their finding, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to more successful hybrid poplar varieties for increased biofuels and forestry production and protect native trees against infection.
![Methanogen_mercury_study3.jpg Methanogen_mercury_study3.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/Methanogen_mercury_study3.jpg?itok=a79hsOOv)
Biologists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have confirmed that microorganisms called methanogens can transform mercury into the neurotoxin methylmercury with varying efficiency across species.