Van Berkel receives top Science, Technology honor at UT-Battelle Awards Night

Gary J. Van Berkel of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Chemical Sciences Division has earned the ORNL Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology.

Van Berkel was honored Friday night during the annual Awards Night event hosted by UT-Battelle, the management and operating contractor of ORNL. The award recognizes Van Berkel’s sustained leadership and innovation in the development of disruptive sampling systems for mass spectrometry, resulting in multiple commercial licenses and new product offerings. He was earlier named ORNL’s Inventor of the Year.

David Fowler of ORNL’s Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate earned the Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Laboratory Operations. Fowler was honored for recent accomplishments that exceeded normal performance expectations and positively advanced ORNL’s mission. He also won the Excellence in Operations category.

Donald Cross of ORNL’s Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate earned the Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Community Engagement. Cross provided outstanding leadership and selfless dedication in community service through the mentoring of special needs children and adults in a wide variety of organizations. He also won the award for Exceptional Community Engagement by an Individual.

A team composed primarily of members of ORNL’s Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate earned the Director’s Award for Outstanding Team Accomplishment. The 12-person team, which also won the Scientific Research category, was recognized for groundbreaking research in biotic and abiotic mechanisms of mercury methylation in the environment, leading to high-impact publications in Science and Geoscience. Members of the team were Alexander Johs, Mircea Podar, Craig C. Brandt, Jerry M. Parks, Xianping Lisa Yin, Dwayne A. Elias, Jeremy C. Smith, Baohua Gu, Carrie L. Miller, Scott C. Brooks, Steven D. Brown, and Liyuan Lang.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.