Chemical and biomolecular engineer Michael Hu has spent his career devising novel means to filter, separate, and select desirable materials from liquids and gases with an eye toward better biofuels, biochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other products—and is setting his sights on app...
In Chengyun Hua’s research, everything revolves around heat and how it moves. As a Russell Fellow at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Hua carefully analyzes nanoscale heat transfer mechanisms using laser spectroscopy. “Heat is being generated from every...
For many scientists and engineers, the first real test of their mettle comes not in a classroom, but in a lab or the field, where hands-on experience can teach volumes. For Susan Hogle, that hands-on experience just happened to be with material that was too hot to handle—literally....
Michelle Baldwin’s engineering work has taken her from the public to the private sector and back again, although it was not certain early in her academic career that she would pursue a technical field at all. Baldwin applies her technical programming expertise to several proj...
Niyanth Sridharan grew up in a family that indulged his questions by using real-world examples to explain scientific concepts. That natural curiosity still drives the materials researcher today as he explores additive manufacturing techniques at the Department of Energy's Oak Ri...
Simulating the global climate in high resolution at multiple scales will help answer questions about future global and regional climates. However, as performance expectations increase for Earth system models, so do computing challenges. Salil Mahajan, a computational climate sci...
Mindy Clark’s enthusiasm for plant biology has only grown from her time in the classroom at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) to her years working in greenhouse operations for private industry and more recently at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory....
Joshua New has an ambitious goal to increase the nation’s efficient use of energy: he wants to create a model of every building in America. All 130 million of them. For now, Joshua and his colleagues in the Building Envelope and Urban Systems group are creating virtual models of the buildings in ...
Tara Pandya’s interest in nuclear engineering began with a literal flash of inspiration. Pandya originally aspired to become a musician or a music teacher, but grew to love math and physics the more she learned about them. When it came time for college, she wanted to find a progr...
During the workday, Anthony Walker spends considerable time designing models to advance our understanding of Earth’s biological systems. In the evenings and on weekends, he takes a more hands-on approach to the natural world, whether working in his garden or out kayaking on...
Finding new energy uses for underrated materials is a recurring theme across Amit Naskar’s research portfolio. Since joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2006, he has studied low-cost polymers as carbon fiber precursors, turning lignin−a byproduct of biofuel production−into renewable thermoplastics and creating carbon battery electrodes from recycled tires.
At the heart of Hector Santos-Villalobos’ work is the need to get a better look at the unknown, whether it is the structure of an underground geothermal reservoir, meter-thick concrete surrounding a nuclear reactor, or the fine details of the human eye. It may seem appropriate, then,...