Oak Ridge Today

George joins elite group as ORNL-UT Governor’s Chair

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Easo George becomes the 15th Governor’s Chair. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

 

Easo George, one of the world’s foremost authorities on advanced alloy development and theory, has been named the 15th Governor’s Chair at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.

George comes from the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, where he has been professor of materials design and director of the Center for Interface Dominated High Performance Materials since November 2014. Prior to that, he had a career of nearly three decades at ORNL, where he was a distinguished research staff member and head of the Alloy Behavior and Design Group. He was also a professor of materials science and engineering at UT since 2002, a press release said.

“I am honored to have been chosen for this position,” George said in the press release. “There is already tremendous synergy between ORNL and UT in advancing materials research, and I cannot wait to help build even more momentum.” [Read more…]

Name of new element, tennessine, recognizes state’s contributions, including at ORNL

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The recently discovered element 117 has been officially named “tennessine” in recognition of Tennessee’s contributions to its discovery, including the efforts of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its Tennessee collaborators at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee.

“The presence of tennessine on the Periodic Table is an affirmation of our state’s standing in the international scientific community, including the facilities ORNL provides to that community as well as the knowledge and expertise of the laboratory’s scientists and technicians,” ORNL Director Thom Mason said in a press release.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, or IUPAC, gave its final approval to the name “tennessine” following a year-long process that began December 30, 2015, when IUPAC and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics announced verification of the existence of the superheavy element 117. That was more than five years after scientists first reported its discovery in April 2010.

IUPAC validates the existence of newly discovered elements and approves their official names.

ORNL had several roles in the discovery, the most prominent being production of the radioisotope berkelium-249 for the search. [Read more…]

ORNL wins seven R&D 100 Awards

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A close-up look at the Open Port Sampling Interfaces for Mass Spectrometry, one of ORNL’s seven 2016 R&D 100 Award winners. (Image by ORNL)

 

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received seven R&D 100 Awards in recognition of their significant advancements in science and technology. The honorees were recognized on November 3 at the 54th annual R&D 100 Conference, which was sponsored by R&D Magazine.

The awards, known as the “Oscars of Invention,” honor innovative breakthroughs in materials science, biomedicine, consumer products, and more from academia, industry, and government-sponsored research agencies.

This year’s seven honors bring ORNL’s total of R&D 100 awards to 200 since their inception in 1963, a press release said.

ORNL researchers were recognized for the following innovations: [Read more…]

Supercomputers: China still has top two, ORNL’s Titan remains No. 3

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Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was once ranked as the world’s most powerful supercomputer, but it was ranked number three in November 2016 in the semiannual TOP500 List. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

 

China still has the two fastest supercomputers in the world, and Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory remains number three.

The semi-annual TOP500 List of the world’s top supercomputers was released last Monday, November 14, at a conference in Salt Lake City.

Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at ORNL, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, has achieved 17.59 petaflops, or quadrillions of calculations per second.

The most powerful supercomputer, a relatively new Chinese supercomputer named Sunway TaihuLight, is capable of 93 petaflops. It is built entirely using processors designed and made in China. In June, it displaced Tianhe-2, an Intel-based Chinese supercomputer that had claimed the number one spot on the six previous TOP500 lists.

Tianhe-2, the number two system, achieved a speed of 33.86 petaflops, or more than 33,000 trillion calculations per second, in a test known as the LINPACK benchmark. That ranking program uses a series of linear equations to test computer systems around the world. [Read more…]

Strunk named top scientist at ORNL’s Awards Night

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Bill Strunk

Bill Strunk

 

Bill Strunk of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Directorate has received the ORNL Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology.

ORNL Director Thom Mason presented the top researcher award to Strunk during Friday night’s annual Awards Night event hosted by UT-Battelle, the management and operating contractor of ORNL for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Strunk was recognized for exemplary leadership of ORNL’s uranium science and engineering programs, which has led to enhancements in the nation’s nuclear security, a press release said. He is also credited with the establishment of research and development capabilities and facilities that will enable ORNL to excel in vitally important areas of research. Strunk, who works in the Enrichment Science and Engineering Division, also earned the Division Level Research Leadership award.

Roderick Jackson of the Energy and Transportation Science Division received the Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Mission Support. [Read more…]

UT-Battelle donates $150,000 for new Friendship Bell pavilion

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, center, presented a check to Pat Postma, right, and Alan Tatum, co-chairs of the International Friendship Bell Citizens Advisory Committee, during a ceremony at Oak Ridge Associated Universities’ Pollard Auditorium on Thursday, Nov 17, 2016. (Photo by ORNL)

 

UT-Battelle has announced a $150,000 gift toward construction of a new Peace Pavilion to house the International Friendship Bell located in Oak Ridge’s Alvin K. Bissell Park.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason presented a check to Pat Postma and Alan Tatum, co-chairs of the International Friendship Bell Citizens Advisory Committee, during a Thursday evening ceremony at Oak Ridge Associated Universities’ Pollard Auditorium.

The check presentation was the start of a public campaign to raise $750,000 for the project. A total of $416,000 has either already been raised or pledged.

“The International Friendship Bell is an important symbol of the heritage and future of Oak Ridge,” Mason said. “UT-Battelle is proud to support the construction of a new Peace Pavilion that will make the bell a focal point for the city and for the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park.” [Read more…]

ORNL awarded $3.36 million for automated, connected vehicle research

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Connected, automated vehicles will be part of an integrated control technologies-based system that could increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Image by ORNL)

 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been awarded $3.36 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, to develop novel control technologies for connected and automated vehicles with the goal of achieving a 20 percent improvement in vehicle energy efficiency, a press release said.

The project will focus on developing and implementing control technologies in a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, or PHEV, to achieve the following: compute optimal routing to bypass bottlenecks, accidents, special events, and other conditions that affect traffic flow; accelerate and decelerate optimally based on traffic conditions and the state of the surrounding roads; and optimize onboard powertrain efficiency.

“This approach changes the mathematical framework of how the vehicle is controlled and optimized today,” said ORNL’s Andreas Malikopoulos, the project’s principal investigator. “With our proposed concept, the vehicle will no longer operate in isolation but will be considered as part of an integrated system, which ultimately could help increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” [Read more…]

ORNL tests new lubricants for ExxonMobil in marine diesel engine prototype

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher Eric Nafziger works on a marine diesel engine prototype used to test new lubricants for ExxonMobil. (Photo by ORNL)

 

A unique diesel engine prototype is evaluating next-generation lubricants for the global marine industry, and the project was showcased by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and ExxonMobil during a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week.

The ribbon-cutting was on Monday, October 24, at ORNL’s National Transportation Research Center in Hardin Valley. The ribbon-cutting included ORNL lead researcher Mike Kass and Frans Horjus, global marine lubricants manager for ExxonMobil.

In a press release posted on its website, ExxonMobil announced the first firing of the new marine test engine to speed the development of next-generation marine lubricants. [Read more…]

Dick Smyser Community Lecture on Thursday to feature advanced composites manufacturing executive

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Craig Blue

Craig Blue

The 19th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series on Thursday will feature Craig Blue, chief executive officer of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation.

Blue will give an overview of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. The lecture is sponsored by Friends of ORNL, or FORNL. It’s free and will be at the American Museum of Science and Energy at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge.

A reception will be held in the museum lobby starting at 5:30 p.m. (snacks will be served), and the lecture starts at 6 p.m. in the museum auditorium, a press release said. This talk should be of interest to the general public, the release said. [Read more…]

Photos: LeMond Composites opening celebration

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Greg LeMond, center, three-time Tour de France champion, celebrated the opening of LeMond Composites, a new company he co-founded, during a ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 12, 2016, at Heritage Center in west Oak Ridge. The company is expected to make composite bicycles and carbon fiber, and invest $125 million and create 242 new jobs. Behind LeMond is Nicolas Wegener, LeMond Composites chief operating officer. At left is Thomas Zacharia, ORNL deputy director for science and technology. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A new company co-founded by Greg LeMond, a three-time Tour de France champion, will make composite bicycles and carbon fiber for other products in Oak Ridge, and the business, called LeMond Composites, will invest $125 million and create 242 new jobs, officials said during a Wednesday afternoon ceremony. Here are photos from the ceremony. [Read more…]

LeMond Composites to make carbon fiber, composite bicycles—invest $125 million, create 242 jobs

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Greg LeMond, three-time Tour de France champion, celebrated the opening of LeMond Composites, a new company he co-founded, during a ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 12, 2016, at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge. The company is expected to make composite bicycles and carbon fiber, and invest $125 million and create 242 new jobs. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A new company co-founded by Greg LeMond, a three-time Tour de France champion, will make composite bicycles and carbon fiber for other products in Oak Ridge, and the business, called LeMond Composites, will invest $125 million and create 242 new jobs, officials said during a Wednesday afternoon ceremony.

Among the officials celebrating the opening on Wednesday were LeMond, and Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd.

Carbon fiber has advantageous properties, but cost has been a barrier to using it, said Connie Jackson, chief executive officer of LeMond Composites. She said the manufacturing process has been changed to reduce production cost.

“We have overcome a significant part of the cost barrier,” Jackson said.

Carbon fiber is light, stiff, and strong, making it the perfect material for advanced composites in a variety of applications. It can be used to improve efficiency, save energy, and build or repair vehicles and planes, wind turbines and containers, and bridges and tunnels. [Read more…]

ORNL, UT celebrating Bioenergy Day with free event for elementary, middle school students

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee are celebrating Bioenergy Day 2016 with a free event designed to engage elementary kids and middle schools, inviting them to investigate the world of bioenergy.

Participants include Creative Discovery Museum of Chattanooga, Genera Energy, UT Ag Extension, and UT Forest Service, along with ORNL Manufacturing (3D printing) and ORNL Transportation. [Read more…]