Skip to main content
Mallory Ladd gathers field samples on the coastal plain of northern Alaska. Photo courtesy, Mallory Ladd.
Mallory Ladd began trekking to the Arctic, even before her time at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in search of a better understanding of what’s going on belowground and how it links to changes in the larger landscape. The University of Tennessee, Knoxv...
Robert Wagner is director of the National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Photo credit: Jason Richards, ORNL.

Some engineers are attracted to fuels and engine research out of a love of cars. For Robert Wagner, however, enthusiasm for combustion science and chaos theory drew him to this area of research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After years of delivering breakthroughs for cleane...

Lianhong Gu is an environmental scientist in the Ecosystem Science Group at ORNL.
Photosynthesis is one of the most important processes on Earth. Without it the food chain would collapse, and we would lose a primary source of oxygen for all life. Yet it is a process that is still poorly understood outside the laboratory. With the help of an Oak Ridge Nation...
Fidget spinner
One drop of liquid, a cutting-edge laser 3D-printer and a few hours are all it takes to make a fidget spinner smaller than the width of a human hair. The tiny whirligig was created by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences to illustrate the facility’s unique resources and expertise available to scientists across the world.
Chlorite dismutase - Journal cover art reprinted with permission from ACS Catalysis, vol. 7, issue 11, November 3, 2017. Further permissions related to the material excerpted should be directed to the ACS.

A new study sheds light on a unique enzyme that could provide an eco-friendly treatment for chlorite-contaminated water supplies and improve water quality worldwide. An international team of researchers led by Christian Obinger from the University of Vienna used neutron analys...

Rose Ruther

In the quest for better batteries, Rose Ruther has found that the positives nearly always outweigh the negatives, and that’s what keeps her coming back to the lab. Ruther works on novel materials to create batteries with higher energy density at a lower cost as part of the Roll to Roll Manufactur...

Adam Witt
Adam Witt’s career path has followed some twists and turns, much like the rivers he studies. But the diversity of his professional experience is a boon to his work as he looks for new ways to harness an ancient energy source: water. Witt, a hydropower systems research engineer,...
ORNL Image

Inspired by her computer science studies and the possibilities of 3D-printing, intern Elizabeth Yeoh-Wang found a way to combine those pursuits as she worked on a software project at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) last summer. Elizabeth, a r...

ORNL Image

Interdisciplinary work has been a hallmark of Julie Mitchell’s career, and it is a strength she expects to leverage in helping solve some big science challenges as she steps into the role of Deputy Director of the Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Mitchell will support...

conventional sedan

It’s common knowledge that driving aggressively can dent gas mileage, but it’s difficult to determine exactly how much gas drivers waste. A new study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has quantified the impact speeding and slamming on the brakes has on fuel economy and consumption. They found that aggressive behavior behind the wheel can lower gas mileage in light-duty vehicles by about 10 to 40 percent in stop-and-go traffic and roughly 15 to 30 percent at highway speeds. This can equate to losing about $0.25 to $1 per gallon.