Skip to main content
Jeff Foster, Distinguished Staff Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is looking for ways to control polymer sequencing for a variety of uses. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Chemist Jeff Foster is looking for ways to control sequencing in polymers that could result in designer molecules to benefit a variety of industries, including medicine and energy.

A researcher works in a lab in the Radiochemical Engineering and Development Center, or REDC,  at ORNL’s main campus. The REDC provides world-class capabilities in isotope production, research and development, source fabrication, and the distribution of various unique isotopes. Here, experts handle some of the most exotic materials in the world. Credit: Carlos Jones, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy

A series of new classes at Pellissippi State Community College will offer students a new career path — and a national laboratory a pipeline of workers who have the skills needed for its own rapidly growing programs.

Frances Pleasonton seals a vacuum chamber in 1951.

The old photos show her casually writing data in a logbook with stacks of lead bricks nearby, or sealing a vacuum chamber with a wrench. ORNL researcher Frances Pleasonton was instrumental in some of the earliest explorations of the properties of the neutron as the X-10 Site was finding its postwar footing as a research lab.

Vincente Guiseppe, co-spokesperson of the Majorana Collaboration and a research staff member at ORNL, in front of the Majorana Demonstrator shield on the 4850 Level of SURF. Credit: Nick Hubbard/Sanford Underground Research Facility

For nearly six years, the Majorana Demonstrator quietly listened to the universe. Nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, or SURF, in Lead, South Dakota, the experiment collected data that could answer one of the most perplexing questions in physics: Why is the universe filled with something instead of nothing?

Pm-147

With larger, purer shipments on a more frequent basis, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is moving closer to routine production of promethium-147. That’s thanks in part to the application of some specific research performed a decade ago for a completely different project.

Jack Cahill of ORNL’s Biosciences Division is developing new techniques to view and measure the previously unseen to better understand important chemical processes at play in plant-microbe interactions and in human health. In this photo, Cahill is positioning a rhizosphere-on-a-chip platform for imaging by mass spectrometry. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept of Energy

John “Jack” Cahill is out to illuminate previously unseen processes with new technology, advancing our understanding of how chemicals interact to influence complex systems whether it’s in the human body or in the world beneath our feet.

From left to right, Cortney Piper, executive director of the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council; Susan Hubbard, ORNL deputy for science and technology; Dan Miller, innovation Crossroads program lead; and Mike Paulus, ORNL director of technology transfer, attend the Innovation Crossroads Showcase at the Knoxville Chamber on Sept. 22. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A crowd of investors and supporters turned out for last week’s Innovation Crossroads Showcase at the Knoxville Chamber as part of Innov865 Week. Sponsored by ORNL and the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council, the event celebrated deep-tech entrepreneurs and the Oak Ridge Corridor as a growing energy innovation hub for the nation.

ORNL physicist Libby Johnson demonstrated a new control panel at ORNL’s Bulk Shielding Facility in 1957. Among the first females to operate a nuclear reactor, Johnson blazed trails for women. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Oak Ridge National Laboratory physicist Elizabeth “Libby” Johnson (1921-1996), one of the world’s first nuclear reactor operators, standardized the field of criticality safety with peers from ORNL and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Scientists at ORNL have created a rhizosphere-on-a-chip research platform, a miniaturized environment to study the ecosystem around poplar tree roots for insights into plant health and soil carbon sequestration. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL have created a miniaturized environment to study the ecosystem around poplar tree roots for insights into plant health and soil carbon sequestration.

Larry Allard

Larry Allard, a distinguished research staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named a Fellow of the Microanalysis Society.