Feature Articles
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 11-Oct-2025 22:11 ET (12-Oct-2025 02:11 GMT/UTC)
2-Jun-2023
Advincula receives Netzsch NATAS Fellows Award
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Rigoberto Advincula, a renowned scientist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee, has won the Netzsch North American Thermal Analysis Society (NATAS) Fellows Award for 2023.
1-Jun-2023
Transforming plants into allies in the fight against climate change
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Nature-based solutions are an effective tool to combat climate change triggered by rising carbon emissions, whether it’s by clearing the skies with bio-based aviation fuels or boosting natural carbon sinks. At the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists are leading research to transform plants into key drivers of decarbonization, from creating biomass crops for new fuels to enhancing the ability of plants to absorb and store carbon.
- Funder
- DOE/US Department of Energy
30-May-2023
ORNL establishes Seaborg initiative for study of actinides
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory joins four other national laboratories — Idaho, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley — that have institutes named after nuclear chemist and Nobel Prize winner Glenn T. Seaborg.
25-May-2023
RSICC, ORNL’s longest running institution, observes 60th anniversary
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Amid the tumultuous backdrop of 1962, nuclear physicist Alvin M. Weinberg recommended a repository of radiation safety information at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that persists to this day.
23-May-2023
Firsthand fieldwork: ORNL scientists establish monitoring in at-risk coastal ecosystem
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
As a biogeochemist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Matthew Berens studies how carbon, nutrients and minerals move through water and soil. In this firsthand account, Berens describes recent fieldwork in Louisiana with colleagues to better understand key processes in coastal ecosystems.
- Funder
- DOE/US Department of Energy
15-May-2023
Generations of separation: EMIS keeps improving
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ORNL’s electromagnetic isotope separator, or EMIS, made history in 2018 when it produced 500 milligrams of the rare isotope ruthenium-96, unavailable anywhere else in the world.
And EMIS technology just keeps getting better, said Brian Egle, who heads the Enrichment Science and Engineering Division’s Stable Isotope Research, Development and Production Section.
“It’s capable of, essentially, separating the whole periodic table,” he said.
- Funder
- U.S. Department of Energy
12-May-2023
ORNL inventor Tomonori Saito honored at Battelle Celebration of Solvers
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Tomonori Saito, a distinguished innovator in the field of polymer science and senior R&D staff member at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was honored on May 11 in Columbus, Ohio, at Battelle’s Celebration of Solvers.
- Funder
- US Department of Energy Office of Science
10-May-2023
The copper key to more efficient biomass breakdown
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Nonfood, plant-based biofuels have potential as a green alternative to fossil fuels, but the enzymes required for production are too inefficient and costly to produce. However, new research is shining a light on enzymes from fungi that could make biofuels economically viable.
- Journal
- Chemical Science
2-May-2023
Cybersecurity goes undercover to protect electric grid data
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Inspired by one of the mysteries of human perception, an ORNL researcher invented a new way to hide sensitive electric grid information from cyberattack: Within a constantly-changing color palette.