![This photo is of a male scientist sitting at a desk working with materials, wearing protective glasses.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-07/2023-P08173.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=LnJLvflD)
Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Clean Energy (165)
- (-) Isotopes (3)
- (-) Materials (136)
- Advanced Manufacturing (11)
- Biological Systems (2)
- Biology and Environment (134)
- Biology and Soft Matter (1)
- Building Technologies (2)
- Climate and Environmental Systems (5)
- Computational Biology (1)
- Computational Engineering (3)
- Computer Science (17)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (1)
- Energy Sciences (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (1)
- Fusion and Fission (11)
- Fusion Energy (5)
- Isotope Development and Production (1)
- Materials Characterization (1)
- Materials for Computing (23)
- Materials Under Extremes (1)
- Mathematics (1)
- National Security (34)
- Neutron Science (47)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (7)
- Quantum information Science (8)
- Sensors and Controls (1)
- Supercomputing (128)
- Transportation Systems (1)
News Topics
- (-) Artificial Intelligence (13)
- (-) Bioenergy (30)
- (-) Clean Water (10)
- (-) Computer Science (37)
- (-) Environment (64)
- (-) Materials Science (91)
- (-) Nanotechnology (41)
- (-) Polymers (21)
- (-) Security (8)
- (-) Sustainable Energy (71)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (89)
- Advanced Reactors (9)
- Big Data (7)
- Biology (12)
- Biomedical (14)
- Biotechnology (4)
- Buildings (36)
- Chemical Sciences (33)
- Climate Change (23)
- Composites (19)
- Coronavirus (14)
- Critical Materials (19)
- Cybersecurity (10)
- Decarbonization (34)
- Energy Storage (86)
- Exascale Computing (3)
- Fossil Energy (2)
- Frontier (3)
- Fusion (7)
- Grid (41)
- High-Performance Computing (9)
- Hydropower (2)
- Irradiation (2)
- Isotopes (33)
- ITER (1)
- Machine Learning (10)
- Materials (94)
- Mathematics (3)
- Mercury (3)
- Microelectronics (1)
- Microscopy (29)
- Molten Salt (3)
- National Security (7)
- Net Zero (3)
- Neutron Science (42)
- Nuclear Energy (25)
- Partnerships (16)
- Physics (29)
- Quantum Computing (3)
- Quantum Science (12)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Simulation (4)
- Space Exploration (8)
- Statistics (1)
- Summit (6)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (5)
- Transportation (69)
Media Contacts
![2023 Battelle Distinguished Inventors](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/23-G07641-Battelle-Distinguished-Inventor-graphic-pcg_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=uhmqAKgT)
Four scientists affiliated with ORNL were named Battelle Distinguished Inventors during the lab’s annual Innovation Awards on Dec. 1 in recognition of being granted 14 or more United States patents.
![Karen White](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-12/karen-white.png?h=82115ee8&itok=oxhQuzGO)
Karen White, who works in ORNL’s Neutron Science Directorate, has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
![Conceptual art depicts machine learning finding an ideal material for capacitive energy storage. Its carbon framework (black) has functional groups with oxygen (pink) and nitrogen (turquoise). Credit: Tao Wang/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/Press%20release%20image_0.jpg?h=706c9a24&itok=zX1lC5ud)
Guided by machine learning, chemists at ORNL designed a record-setting carbonaceous supercapacitor material that stores four times more energy than the best commercial material.
![The sun sets behind the ORNL Visitor Center in this aerial photo from April 2023. Credit: Kase Clapp/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/sunset_visitor-center_0.png?h=10d202d3&itok=jLImPT0R)
In fiscal year 2023 — Oct. 1–Sept. 30, 2023 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory was awarded more than $8 million in technology maturation funding through the Department of Energy’s Technology Commercialization Fund, or TCF.
![ORNL’s organocatalyst deconstructs mixed plastics at different temperatures, which facilitates recovering their individual monomers separately, in reusable form. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/23-G05683_MixedPlasticRecycling_proof2_0.png?h=27870e4a&itok=jjYga9GD)
Little of the mixed consumer plastics thrown away or placed in recycle bins actually ends up being recycled. Nearly 90% is buried in landfills or incinerated at commercial facilities that generate greenhouse gases and airborne toxins. Neither outcome is ideal for the environment.
![ORNL’s David Sholl is director of the new DOE Energy Earthshot Non-Equilibrium Energy Transfer for Efficient Reactions center to help decarbonize the industrial chemical industry. Credit: Genevieve Martin, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2021-P04915.David_.Sholl_.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=qT7ZMJX2)
ORNL has been selected to lead an Energy Earthshot Research Center, or EERC, focused on developing chemical processes that use sustainable methods instead of burning fossil fuels to radically reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions to stem climate change and limit the crisis of a rapidly warming planet.
![Connecting wires to the interface of the topological insulator and superconductor enables probing of novel electronic properties. Researchers aim for qubits based on theorized Majorana particles. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2023-P04516.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=BoCZtfwR)
Quantum computers process information using quantum bits, or qubits, based on fragile, short-lived quantum mechanical states. To make qubits robust and tailor them for applications, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory sought to create a new material system.
![Steve Nolan, left, who manages many ORNL facilities for United Cleanup Oak Ridge, and Carl Dukes worked closely together to accommodate bringing members of the public into the Oak Ridge Reservation to collect distant images from overhead for the BRIAR biometric recognition project. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2023-P09038.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=76hibHXl)
Carl Dukes’ career as an adept communicator got off to a slow start: He was about 5 years old when he spoke for the first time. “I’ve been making up for lost time ever since,” joked Dukes, a technical professional at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
![Chathuddasie Amarasinghe explains her research poster, “Using Microfluidic Mother Machine Devices to Study the Correlated Dynamics of Ribosomes and Chromosomes in Escherichia Coli.” Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2023-P11614_0.jpg?h=06ac0d8c&itok=kjePlpfo)
Speakers, scientific workshops, speed networking, a student poster showcase and more energized the Annual User Meeting of the Department of Energy’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, or CNMS, Aug. 7-10, near Market Square in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee.
![ORNL researchers are demonstrating an automation system for this portable system, currently based in Colorado, for treatment of non-traditional water sources to drinking water standards. Credit: Tzahi Cath/Colorado School of Mines](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/NAWI_comp01_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=I2fCHpSN)
Researchers at ORNL are developing advanced automation techniques for desalination and water treatment plants, enabling them to save energy while providing affordable drinking water to small, parched communities without high-quality water supplies.