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ORNL researcher Phong Le poses for a photo outside on a walkway bridge over the pond. The photo is framed with brown and green plants

Phong Le is a computational hydrologist at ORNL who is putting his skills in hydrology, numerical modeling, machine learning and high-performance computing to work quantifying water-related risks for humans and the environment. 

ORNL’s Askin Guler Yigitoglu presents during the 2024 Molten Salt Reactor Workshop in Knoxville with a green and blue background

ORNL’s annual workshop has become the premier forum for molten salt reactor, or MSR, collaboration and innovation, convening industry, academia and government experts to further advance MSR research and development. This year’s event attracted a record-breaking 365 participants from across the country, highlighting the momentum to bring MSRs online.

Photo is a high aerial view of lake superior through the clouds

Researchers at Stanford University, the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, or ECMWF, and ORNL used the lab’s Summit supercomputer to better understand atmospheric gravity waves, which influence significant weather patterns that are difficult to forecast. 

Summit Supercomputer

Scientists conducted a groundbreaking study on the genetic data of over half a million U.S. veterans, using tools from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to analyze 2,068 traits from the Million Veteran Program.

3D map of Washington, D.C. that is a weather model of neighborhood during heat waves. The map is red and green indicating which buildings are giving off more heat
Scientists at ORNL have developed a first-ever urban heat wave simulation that takes into account the compounding effects from building infrastructure. The method provides a more accurate picture of the impacts from excessive heat on at-risk
The summit supercomputer logo on a computer cabinet off center going to the left. There are 7 cabinets going off to the left.

The Summit supercomputer did not have its many plugs pulled as planned after its five years of service. Instead, a new DOE Office of Science-backed allocation program called SummitPLUS was launched, extending Summit's production for another year. What did we learn during Summit’s bonus year of scientific discovery? Here are five projects with important results.

A small sample from the Frontier simulations reveals the evolution of the expanding universe in a region containing a massive cluster of galaxies from billions of years ago to present day (left).

In early November, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory used the fastest supercomputer on the planet to run the largest astrophysical simulation of the universe ever conducted. The achievement was made using the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 

Black computing cabinets in a row on a white floor in the data center that houses the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Two-and-a-half years after breaking the exascale barrier, the Frontier supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory continues to set new standards for its computing speed and performance.

Graphic representation of ai model that identifies proteins

Researchers used the world’s fastest supercomputer, Frontier, to train an AI model that designs proteins, with applications in fields like vaccines, cancer treatments, and environmental bioremediation. The study earned a finalist nomination for the Gordon Bell Prize, recognizing innovation in high-performance computing for science.

Nine men are pictured here standing in front of a window, posing for a group photo with 5 standing and 4 sitting.

A research team led by the University of Maryland has been nominated for the Association for Computing Machinery’s Gordon Bell Prize. The team is being recognized for developing a scalable, distributed training framework called AxoNN, which leverages GPUs to rapidly train large language models.