Feature Stories

ORNL's Peter Fuhr continues pushes boundaries of optical and sensor technology in applications ranging from fighting wildfires to operating the immense floodgates protecting Venice, Italy. Fuhr’s path is marked by an oddball creativity that can’t confine itself to challenges in a single field. No idea is too far out to try out. His many inventions and start-ups before joining ORNL proved his ability to bring bold ideas to life. His influence is likely to be lasting, as his imagination and infectious zeal have driven him to mentor generations of new engineers. 

Mark Kevin Jones is a true Renaissance man in nuclear physics. Throughout his career, he has garnered many accomplishments, and he’s even worn quite a few hats in his three decades at Jefferson Lab. Now, Jones has been recognized for his work by his peers by being named a Fellow of the American Physical Society “For scientific leadership in experimental studies of the fundamental nucleon electromagnetic form factors, including the surprising discovery of significant variation in the large momentum behavior of the proton electric form factor, and for developing new detection systems enabling the studies.”

Check out the second of a two-part series exploring how artificial intelligence helps researchers from around the world perform cutting-edge science with the lab’s state-of-the-art facilities and instruments. In this part you’ll learn how AI is playing a key role in helping SLAC researchers find new galaxies and tiny neutrinos, and discover new drugs.

Check out the first of a two-part series exploring how artificial intelligence helps researchers from around the world perform cutting-edge science with the lab’s state-of-the-art facilities and instruments. In this part you’ll learn how SLAC researchers collaborate to develop AI tools to make molecular movies, speeding up the discovery process in the era of big data.

Particle accelerator scientists have made the measurements, crunched the numbers and consolidated the data on the performance of the brightest electron accelerator for nuclear physics research. In a new study, more than 100 authors have detailed the original and current operating parameters, main systems and subsystems, and capabilities and limits of Jefferson Lab’s main particle accelerator, the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF).

Throughout its history, the Argonne Hispanic/Latino Employee Resource Group has regularly partnered with local schools in underserved communities, inviting students to visit the lab and inspiring them to build a sustained interest in their STEM studies.

Walt Akers, chief systems engineer for experimental nuclear physics at Jefferson Lab was tasked with creating a 3D-printed model of a section of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a next-generation particle accelerator being built at the DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in partnership with Jefferson Lab. He took his inspiration from toy building blocks.

Scientists are using artificial intelligence and powerful computing to sculpt new molecules in an effort to treat disease.

Record-Breaking Run on Frontier Sets New Bar for Simulating the Universe in the Exascale EraResearchers at Argonne National Laboratory used the Frontier supercomputer to run the largest astrophysical simulation of the universe ever conducted. The calculations set a new benchmark for cosmological hydrodynamics simulations and provide a new foundation for simulating the physics of atomic matter and dark matter simultaneously. The simulation size corresponds to surveys undertaken by large telescope observatories, a feat that until now has not been possible at this scale. 

Alex Bogacz, a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility since 1997, has spent his career in accelerator physics solving problems. From studying complex particle beam dynamics in particle accelerators to designing next-generation machines, his almost four decades of work have recently been recognized by his peers by being named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in October 2024.