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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping modernize power management and enhance reliability in an increasingly complex electric grid. As the United States transitions to cleaner energy and more U.S. consumers adopt electric vehicles, the grid is facing new power flow demands. ORNL researchers are tackling this challenge by creating a new architecture to modernize the grid from the bottom up, starting with consumers and expanding to the entire power distribution system. A cornerstone of this architecture is a new power electronics technology suite called a Smart Universal Power Electronics Regulator, or SUPER.

Ho Nyung Lee, a condensed matter physicist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected a Fellow of the Materials Research Society. The society lauded Lee “for contributions to the advancement of precision synthesis and materials science of complex oxide thin films and heterostructures and for his leadership and service to the materials science community.”

A chemist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory attracted national attention when her advocacy for science education made People magazine’s annual “Women Changing the World” issue. Seven years ago, Candice Halbert founded a nonprofit that connects diverse STEM professionals with underserved youth, including girls, cultural minorities, LGBTQ+ youth and kids from low-income families. YO-STEM, or Youth Outreach for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, gives kids something Halbert did not get when she was young.

Brenden Ortiz, a Wigner Distinguished Staff Fellow at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is helping design the next generation of quantum materials.

A new report published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory assessed how advanced manufacturing and materials, such as 3D printing and novel component coatings, could offer solutions to modernize the existing fleet and design new approaches to hydropower.

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a competitive, eco-friendly alternative to rigid foam boards made without harmful blowing agents.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have identified specific proteins and amino acids that could control bioenergy plants’ ability to identify beneficial microbes that can enhance plant growth and storage of carbon in soils.

A tool developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers gives building owners and equipment manufacturers and installers an easy way to calculate the cost savings of a heating and cooling system that utilizes geothermal energy and emits no carbon.

A DNA editing tool adapted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists makes engineering microbes for everything from bioenergy production to plastics recycling easier and faster.

Chemist Jeff Foster is looking for ways to control sequencing in polymers that could result in designer molecules to benefit a variety of industries, including medicine and energy. Using the technology that he and his colleagues are developing, “scientists can begin to understand how the sequence of monomers influences the behavior and properties of synthetic polymer materials,” said Foster, an Alvin M. Weinberg Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.