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Bobby Sumpter. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL Corporate Fellow and Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences researcher Bobby Sumpter has been named fellow of two scientific professional societies: the Institute of Physics and the International Association of Advanced Materials.

ORNL identity science researcher Nell Barber works on a facial recognition camera. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Though Nell Barber wasn’t sure what her future held after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, she now uses her interest in human behavior to design systems that leverage machine learning algorithms to identify faces in a crowd.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Leah Broussard shows a neutron-absorbing "wall" that stops all neutrons but in theory would allow hypothetical mirror neutrons to pass through. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

To solve a long-standing puzzle about how long a neutron can “live” outside an atomic nucleus, physicists entertained a wild but testable theory positing the existence of a right-handed version of our left-handed universe.

Giri Prakash, director of the ARM Data Center, works with the latest ARM computing cluster at ORNL. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Data Center is shepherding changes to its operations to make the treasure trove of data more easily available accessible and useful to scientists studying Earth’s climate.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Mitch Allmond works with the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Decay Station initiator, which combined diverse detectors for FRIB’s first experiment. Credit: Robert Grzywacz/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Two decades in the making, a new flagship facility for nuclear physics opened on May 2, and scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have a hand in 10 of its first 34 experiments.

ORNL’s Bruce Pint, left, and Marie Romedenne review experiment results. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Practical fusion energy is not just a dream at ORNL. Experts in fusion and material science are working together to develop solutions that will make a fusion pilot plant — and ultimately carbon-free, abundant fusion electricity — possible.

Frontier has arrived, and ORNL is preparing for science on Day One. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, Dept. of Energy

The Frontier supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory earned the top ranking today as the world’s fastest on the 59th TOP500 list, with 1.1 exaflops of performance. The system is the first to achieve an unprecedented level of computing performance known as exascale, a threshold of a quintillion calculations per second.

Logan Sturm, Alvin M. Weinberg Fellow at ORNL, creates a mashup between additive manufacturing and cybersecurity research. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

How an Alvin M. Weinberg Fellow is increasing security for critical infrastructure components

A team of fusion scientists and engineers stand in front of ORNL’s Helium Flow Loop device. From back left to front right: Chris Crawford, Fayaz Rasheed, Joy Fan, Michael Morrow, Charles Kessel, Adam Carroll, and Cody Wiggins. Not pictured: Dennis Youchison and Monica Gehrig. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL.

To achieve practical energy from fusion, extreme heat from the fusion system “blanket” component must be extracted safely and efficiently. ORNL fusion experts are exploring how tiny 3D-printed obstacles placed inside the narrow pipes of a custom-made cooling system could be a solution for removing heat from the blanket.

LandScan Global depicts population distribution estimates across the planet. The darker orange and red colors above indicate higher population density. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

It’s a simple premise: To truly improve the health, safety, and security of human beings, you must first understand where those individuals are.