![Prasanna Balaprakash](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-08/2023-P02525.jpg?h=502e75fa&itok=ePVQC-A5)
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Media Contacts
![Technology Innovation Program](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-08/TIPbg_0.jpg?h=a50b7bdc&itok=_3vRlbkP)
Five technologies invented by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been selected for targeted investment through ORNL’s Technology Innovation Program.
![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](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-09/Johnson_1.jpg?h=06ac0d8c&itok=JUg5qoxV)
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](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-08/Rhizosphere%20on%20a%20chip_thumbnail.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=KImuFYmF)
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.
![Thylakoid](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-08/Thylakoid-crop2.png?h=384d27f0&itok=fL2BJ32m)
A team of scientists led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a theory that thylakoids, membrane networks key to plant photosynthesis, also function as a defense mechanism to harsh growing conditions, which could aid the development of hardier plants.
![Samarthya Bhagia examines a sample of a thermoplastic composite material additively manufactured using poplar wood and polylactic acid. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-07/2022-P03486.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=sdSfzVet)
Chemical and environmental engineer Samarthya Bhagia is focused on achieving carbon neutrality and a circular economy by designing new plant-based materials for a range of applications from energy storage devices and sensors to environmentally friendly bioplastics.
![These images show increasing levels of magnification of phytoliths in the leaves of poplar trees, a key biofuel crop, imaged using ORNL’s specialized microscopy-spectroscopy. Credit: Elizabeth Herndon/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-06/siliconphytoliths_0.jpg?h=b8dc44ba&itok=Eqt3EDFD)
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are closer to unlocking the secrets to better soil carbon sequestration by studying the tiny, sand-like silicon deposits called phytoliths in plants.
![Melanie Mayes is an ORNL biogeochemist studying soil carbon cycling across varied ecosystems, including in urban environments. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-07/2022-P05790.jpg?h=e5831c8d&itok=chW-Ob9B)
Science has taken Melanie Mayes from Tennessee to the tropics, studying some of the most important ecosystems in the world.
![ORNL scientists identified four amino acids key to signaling pathways in the PAN protein domain. Mutating any of those four resulted in disruption of the signal that tells cancer cells to multiply and spread in humans. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-07/protein02.png?h=3c5f4f67&itok=hFlrpAqc)
Researchers at ORNL have definitively linked the function of a specific domain of proteins important in plant-microbe biology to a cancer trigger in humans, knowledge that had eluded scientists for decades.
![Oak Ridge National Laboratory entrance sign](/themes/custom/ornl/images/default-thumbnail.jpg)
Steven Arndt, distinguished R&D staff member in the Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division at ORNL, began a one-year term on June 16 as the 68th President of the American Nuclear Society.
![ORNL researchers deploy a gas trap to measure ebullitive (bubbling) emissions of methane at the Melton Dam in East Tennessee. The trap is deployed for ~ 24 hours to allow gas to accumulate in the trap. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, US Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-06/2022-P04233.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=rKz5qh7F)
As the United States moves toward more sustainable and renewable sources of energy, hydropower is expected to play a pivotal role in integrating more intermittent renewables like wind and solar to the electricity grid