image: Cait Clarkson of Oak Ridge National Laboratory received the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering's Young Professional Emerging Leadership Award.
Credit: Alonda Hines/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Cait Clarkson, an R&D staff scientist in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Science Division (MSD), has received the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, or SAMPE, Young Professional Emerging Leadership Award, which recognizes outstanding early-career leadership in materials and process engineering.
Clarkson works at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at ORNL, where she develops advanced polymer materials for manufacturing applications. Her research focuses on advanced material feedstocks, bio-based and recycled composite materials, natural fiber-reinforced composites, hybrid material systems and large-format additive manufacturing, or LFAM.
Her work also focuses on recovery and reuse of industrial waste streams, including post-consumer plastics and automotive shredder residue, to create composite feedstocks for LFAM, automotive and industrial applications.
“Cait’s work is exactly the kind of applied science that moves manufacturing from concept to deployment,” said MSD Director Yarom Polsky. “Her leadership in developing advanced polymer and composite materials is helping manufacturers create stronger, lighter and more versatile materials for real-world applications.”
Clarkson joined ORNL in 2022 as an R&D associate staff scientist and became an R&D staff scientist in fall 2024. Prior to joining ORNL, she was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the Air Force Research Laboratory. She earned her doctorate in materials engineering from Purdue University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in materials engineering from New Mexico Tech.
Her published research spans nanocellulose materials, polymer processing, natural-fiber-reinforced composites, additive manufacturing and bio-based composite systems. Clarkson’s research publications have received more than 1,300 citations.
MDF is supported by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office and acts as a nationwide consortium of collaborators focused on innovating, inspiring and catalyzing the transformation of U.S. manufacturing.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science. — Tina M. Johnson