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Madhavi Martin portrait image

Madhavi Martin brings a physicist’s tools and perspective to biological and environmental research at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, supporting advances in bioenergy, soil carbon storage and environmental monitoring, and even helping solve a murder mystery.

Mike Huettel

Mike Huettel is a cyber technical professional. He also recently completed the 6-month Cyber Warfare Technician course for the United States Army, where he learned technical and tactical proficiency leadership in operations throughout the cyber domain.

Mirko Musa was always fascinated by the power of rivers, specifically how these mighty waterways sculpt landscapes. Now, as a water power researcher, he’s finding ways to harness that power and protect rivers at the same time. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Mirko Musa spent his childhood zigzagging his bike along the Po River. The Po, Italy’s longest river, cuts through a lush valley of grain and vegetable fields, which look like a green and gold ocean spreading out from the river’s banks. 

Saubhagya Rathore uses his modeling, hydrology and engineering expertise to improve understanding of the nation’s watersheds to better predict the future climate and to guide resilience strategies. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Growing up exploring the parklands of India where Rudyard Kipling drew inspiration for The Jungle Book left Saubhagya Rathore with a deep respect and curiosity about the natural world. He later turned that interest into a career in environmental science and engineering, and today he is working at ORNL to improve our understanding of watersheds for better climate prediction and resilience.

Tristen Mullins. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Tristen Mullins enjoys the hidden side of computers. As a signals processing engineer for ORNL, she tries to uncover information hidden in components used on the nation’s power grid — information that may be susceptible to cyberattacks.

ORNL researchers encoded grid hardware operating data into a color band hidden inside photographs, video or artwork, as shown in this photo. The visual can then be transmitted to a utility’s control center for decoding. Credit: ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy

Inspired by one of the mysteries of human perception, an ORNL researcher invented a new way to hide sensitive electric grid information from cyberattack: within a constantly changing color palette.

NASA scientist Andrew Needham used the MARS neutron imaging instrument at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study moon rock samples brought back from the Apollo missions. Credit: Jeremy Rumsey/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

How did we get from stardust to where we are today? That’s the question NASA scientist Andrew Needham has pondered his entire career.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed an eco-friendly foam insulation for improved building efficiency. Credit: Chad Malone/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL developed a competitive, eco-friendly alternative made without harmful blowing agents.

From left are UWindsor students Isabelle Dib, Dominik Dziura, Stuart Castillo and Maksymilian Dziura at ORNL’s Neutron Spin Echo spectrometer. Their work advances studies on a natural cancer treatment. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A scientific instrument at ORNL could help create a noninvasive cancer treatment derived from a common tropical plant.

Heat is typically carried through a material by vibrations known as phonons. In some crystals, however, different atomic motions — known as phasons — carry heat three times faster and farther. This illustration shows phasons made by rearranging atoms, shown by arrows. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Warming a crystal of the mineral fresnoite, ORNL scientists discovered that excitations called phasons carried heat three times farther and faster than phonons, the excitations that usually carry heat through a material.