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As in the first 50 years of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's history, the past 10 years have been marked by numerous changes. ORNL's managing contractor, Martin Marietta Energy Systems, morphed into Lockheed Martin Energy Systems in 1995, which was replaced by a partnership between the University of Tennessee and Battelle in 2000. A major modernization program was started in 2002. Among those who attended the groundbreaking ceremony, in late 1999, for ORNL's new anchor facility, the Spallation Neutron Source, were Vice President Al Gore and Nobel laureate Clifford Shull. The SNS replaces the previously proposed Advanced Neutron Source. More women were promoted to top jobs, with two serving as division directors. An increasing number of postdoctoral researchers began working at ORNL, including many who are natives of China, India, Mexico, and Russia, making the face of the Lab even more diverse. Here are some highlights of ORNL's history in the past 10 years. 1993 HIGHLIGHTS By 1993 researchers led by
John Bates had developed a thin-film lithium microbattery for computer memory
chips and small devices. The technology was licensed and the microbattery
has been at various stages of manufacturing scaleup. Nancy Dudney has carried
on the work and has used ORNL's Infrared Processing Center for experiments
in an effort to make the battery a more marketable product.
In the biomedical area, ORNL
researchers Scott Bultman, Ed Michaud, and Rick Woychik identified and
cloned the mouse agouti gene, which causes altered fur color, obesity,
diabetes, and skin cancer in mice and which has a human counterpart. Richard
Mural and Ed Uberbacher developed a neural-network system for recognizing
genes in digitized DNA sequences sent by electronic mail. The Gene Recognition
and Analysis Internet Link (GRAIL) system is widely used today. Under the leadership of Russ
Knapp, the rhenium-188 isotope generator was developed and tested for
the treatment of cancer-induced bone and liver pain, arthritis, and prevention
of the buildup of smooth muscle cells in coronary arteries after balloon
angioplasty. Today it is used in many developing countries, from Colombia
to the Philippines. An optical biopsy technique
using a special algorithm was developed by Tuan Vo-Dinh and medical researchers
in Knoxville, Tennessee. In this technique, light is sent and received
through a fiber-optic channel in an endoscope, allowing determination
of whether a tumor in the esophagus is malignant or non-cancerous based
on patterns of fluorescence. It has been shown effective in 98% of patient
studies at Thompson Cancer Survival Center in Knoxville. Omni-directional robotic vehicles
(including a wheelchair concept that was licensed for potential commercial
development) were invented by Francois Pin and Stephen Killough. Led by
Jack Dongarra, ORNL researchers developed the first Top500 list of statistics
on high-performance computers. This new statistical foundation is of major
interest to manufacturers, users, and potential users. The list has been
updated twice a year since, with the help of high-performance manufacturers
and the Internet community. 1994 HIGHLIGHTS
In 1994, Mike Ramsey invented
the "lab on a chip," which shows promise as an inexpensive method for
DNA sequencing and forensic fingerprinting, environmental monitoring,
diagnosing disease, and discovering new drugs. It is now being produced
and marketed by Caliper Technologies for DNA, RNA, and proteins analyses
of biomedical interest. During the 1980s and 1990s,
ORNL researchers, Scott McLuckey, Gary Glish, Doug Goeringer, Gary Van
Berkel, Kevin Hart, and Marc Wise, made a number of fundamental discoveries
in quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry. This instrument stores ions
within an oscillating electric field that are ejected from the trap into
a detector according to their mass-to-charge ratios. This research led
to the development of the direct-sampling ion trap mass spectrometer for
rapid, on-site measurements of concentrations of pollutants in environmental
samples of air, water, and soil. This instrument is also the heart of
the chemical biological mass spectrometer, developed partly by a team
led by Wayne Griest for the U.S. Army for real-time detection of chemical
and biological threat agents. During the 1990s, by improving
secondary ion mass spectrometers, Peter Todd imaged and analyzed target
molecules in whole tissues, including neurotransmitters in brain tissue.
McLuckey, Van Berkel, and Glish were the first to couple the electrospray
ionization technique with the ion trap mass spectrometer, enabling the
identification of proteins. In 2002 Van Berkel adapted a mass spectrometer
for possible homeland security applications as a boarding pass analyzer
for screening airport passengers who may have telltale chemicals on their
hands that indicate they had recently handled explosives. Bill Partridge and others
developed the spatially resolved capillary inlet mass spectrometer measurement
strategy to characterize reactions within after-treatment devices used
to remove pollutants from the exhaust gases of diesel engines. This technology
is being adopted by government, academic, and industrial research labs,
including those of Cummins, Ford, and Engelhard. ORNL researchers led by John
Drake modified climate-modeling codes so they could be run on powerful
parallel supercomputers at ORNL and elsewhere. These codes could be used
to predict the climate 100 years from now, assuming various scenarios
of increased industrial and automotive emissions of the greenhouse gas,
carbon dioxide, as well as deployment of carbon sequestration technologies.
Lynne Parker developed ALLIANCE,
the first software architecture to enable cooperation among teams of heterogeneous
autonomous mobile robot systems. She worked with Caterpillar Inc., and
the U.S. military to adapt these systems for use in remote mining and
urban rescue operations. Researchers at ORNL's Center
for Engineering Science Advanced Research (CESAR) developed the first
general method for fusing information from multiple sensors. 1995 HIGHLIGHTS
In January, ORNL had the fastest
parallel supercomputer in the world- the Intel Paragon XP/S 150. This
machine was used for calculations on a variety of important problems such
as global climate modeling, materials science simulations, theoretical
physics, and bioinformatics. It was also used to model the flow of pollutants
in groundwater. ORNL scientists led by Thomas Zacharia and later Srdan
Simunovic simulated the effects of car collisions on the cars' structural
material to provide information on how to make future energy-efficient,
lightweight vehicles hold up in crashes as well as or better than today's
heavier steel vehicles. Researchers at ORNL and the
University of Tennessee at Knoxville developed a parallel virtual machine
(PVM) software package that permits a variety of desktop computers linked
by a network to be used as a single large parallel computer. Hundreds
of sites around the world are using PVM software to solve important scientific,
industrial, and medical problems. By 1995 half a million users took advantage
of PVM. A team of computer scientists
from Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories,
in conjunction with IBM, developed an ultra-fast data storage system known
as the High Performance Storage System. This software applies the concept
of parallelism to the data storage regime to achieve speeds that have
been unattainable using conventional storage strategies. An HPSS is used
at ORNL for DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Monitoring program. Another important development
in computer science at ORNL was the Message Passing Interface, now the
dominant programming paradigm of scientific codes worldwide.
ORNL researchers led by Bob Hawsey, Don Kroeger, and Amit Goyal developed the rolling-assisted biaxial textured substrates (RABiTSTM) technique for fabricating nickel-based superconducting wire. The technique is being further refined by five industrial licensees, and the ORNL-developed wires are expected to be used commercially by 2010. Under the direction of Gerald Bunick, DNA-protein crystals from ORNL were grown in space aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia and later two orbiting space stations- the Russian Mir and the International Space Station. ORNL researchers led by Thomas Thundat developed microcantilever sensors, which measure physical, chemical, and biological changes based on alterations in the vibrations or bending of the sensors, which resemble tiny diving boards. These alterations are detected by changes in the angle of deflection of laser light striking the sensors. The microcantilever technology was licensed later to several companies; it shows promise for detecting explosives at airports; environmental pollutants, such as mercury; and early signs of prostate cancer. ORNL research led by Winston Chen developed a laser mass spectrometry method that could be used to identify carriers of the cystic fibrosis gene. ORNL researchers led by Randall Wetherington developed a sonar array and signal analysis system for the U.S. Navy. The signal analysis system employed a real-time supercomputer to extract the noise signature from passing submarines that is below that of the ambient sea noises. Vinod Sikka and others developed the Exo-Melt furnace concept used for efficiently and safely melting and casting alloys of ORNL-designed nickel aluminides. The NiAl alloys are used for trays in furnaces for hardening automotive parts and for steel industry rollers for heating steel plates being manufactured. ORNL researchers led by David Stinton and Rod Judkins developed and commercialized the 3M hot-gas ceramic filter for plants with pressurized fluidized-bed combustion and integrated coal gasification combined cycles. This filter is lighter, more reliable, and more efficient than conventional filters. Thanks to the computer modeling and empirical research led by Stan David, ORNL is the international leader in understanding and predicting relationships between weld microstructure and properties and the effects on these of different welding processes.
Using the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility, physicists led by Cyrus Baktash discovered superdeformed light nuclei with masses in the range of 80 to 90. In biological research Cymbeline Culiat and Eugne Rinchik demonstrated that deficiency of a neurotransmitter receptor leads to cleft palate in mice, resulting in tests by geneticists to determine whether the human gene for this receptor is important in human cleft palate. 1996 HIGHLIGHTS James Klett and Tim Burchell discovered how to make a graphite foam that transfers heat unusually well. Its potential applications are legion. They include smaller radiators that enable racecars and future energy-efficient automobiles to be more aerodynamic in design; improved cooling to enable operation of faster computer chips; and more comfortable protective suits for emergency responders. Ed Vineyard and others developed a more energy-efficient refrigerator-freezer by altering a popular refrigerator model to cut its energy use in half. ORNL researchers led by Ken Tobin developed a new technology for classifying defects in semiconductor wafers called Spatial Signature Analysis. The software also enables computers to alert engineers early to problems in wafer manufacturing, improving product yield and saving money. It has since been licensed to 18 companies. ORNL's Steve Kercel and Bill Dress helped Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant researchers develop a heartbeat detector to spot terrorists concealed in vehicles entering government facilities. It is being used to locate escaping prisoners. Using neutron data and computational modeling, ORNL researchers led by Peter Cummings gained new insights into the structure of water. ORNL neutron-scattering results obtained by George Wignall and others helped North Carolina researchers determine the best ways to make plastics from chemicals in supercritical carbon dioxide, an environmentally friendly solvent that may replace chlorofluorocarbons, which destroy the protective stratospheric ozone layer. Larry Allard and others showed the potential of the Internet for remote operation of research equipment such as electron microscopes. Al Geist led the development of a searchable electronic notebook for scientific collaborations involving remote operation of experimental apparatuses.
James Kohl and others developed CUMULVS to help scientists simulate experiments and change the parameters in midcourse to influence the results, saving time and money. Malcolm Stocks and Bill Shelton used computer simulation to better understand the complex magnetic behavior of Invar, a disordered nickel-iron alloy that maintains its dimensions over a wide temperature range. CESAR researchers achieved the first cooperative multi-robot observation of multiple moving targets. 1997 HIGHLIGHTS The Spallation Neutron Source proposed for ORNL received its first conceptual design funds ($130 million). The SNS, on schedule for completion by 2006, will be the world's most powerful pulsed-neutron source, helping to make ORNL the world's leading center for neutron-scattering research. Environmental researchers completed the world's largest experiment on a forest, at Walker Branch Watershed. It demonstrated the ecological effects of altered rainfall regime on eastern deciduous forests, mimicking the potential results (e.g., drought and above-normal precipitation) from climate change. An ORNL-developed instrument developed under the leadership of John Mihalczo helped to verify that Russian weapons-grade uranium is being converted to reactor-grade fuel. This technology was one of ORNL's contributions to national security and nonproliferation. ORNL researchers led by Wayne Griest began developing a second-generation mass spectrometer for the U.S. Army to detect chemical and biological warfare agents more quickly and accurately, reducing the number of false positives experienced by the first-generation mass spectrometer during the Persian Gulf War (1990-91). ORNL researchers led by Ken Tobin developed a new technology (VITALE) that assisted several law-enforcement agencies in recovering and enhancing signals from damaged or worn video and audio tapes leading, in one case, to the capture and conviction of a murder suspect in a convenience store robbery. ORNL computing scientists led by Dongarra developed NetSolve, which enables users to solve complex scientific problems remotely. NetSolve searches for computational resources on a network, chooses the best one available, gets the problem solved, and returns the answers to the user. ORNL researchers began developing a chip-writing system using electron beams to make faster silicon chips for computers. A possible source of these beams turned out to be carbon nanotubes, which are produced at ORNL using laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition as part of the Laboratory's nanoscience initiative. ORNL and UT researchers (Mike Simpson and Gary Saylor) developed a living "critters on a chip" electronic sensor in which engineered bacteria light up in the presence of a specific chemical, such as a soil contaminant, causing the chip to send an electronic signal. Perkin-Elmer worked on developing this concept into a commercial instrument for environmental uses. ORNL researchers led by Francois Pin developed a "human amplification" device that allows a worker to lift and position a multi-ton payload by exerting and feeling just a few pounds of force. 1998 HIGHLIGHTS Audrey Stevens became the most recent ORNL biologist to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She was recognized for her successes in identifying numerous enzymes and proteins involved in RNA metabolism.
ORNL completed construction and began operation of the Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) facility to evaluate the effects of increased carbon dioxide on a closed-canopy sweetgum plantation on the Oak Ridge Reservation. Early findings showed that the trees grew faster in stem and root mass and conserved water during dry conditions. ORNL researchers demonstrated the use of engineered microorganisms for detection of unexploded land mines. Using geographical information system technology, Jerry Dobson wrote a controversial paper covered in the national press. He suggested that Neanderthals may be different from other human species because of an iodine deficiency in their inland diet or a genetic defect that prevented them from absorbing sufficient iodine from food. ORNL researchers led by Stocks and colleagues elsewhere were the first to model magnetism in a metallic alloy using teraflops computing—making a trillion calculations per second. ORNL computing scientists developed Tennessee/Oak Ridge Clusters (TORC), a set of dedicated clusters of Linux/NT desktop computers used for research in parallel computing and applied mathematical and scientific computations. Built using off-the-shelf components (Pentium Pro motherboards, Linus/NT, Fast Ethernet, Myrinet), TORC can achieve gigaflop performance for around $30,000, making it comparable to systems costing many times more. The TRUST global optimization algorithm was developed to help the oil and gas exploration industry. ORNL and UT computing scientists led by Dongarra developed ATLAS, an approach for the automatic generation and optimization of numerical software for processors with deep memory hierarchies and pipelined functional units. 1999 HIGHLIGHTS Ground was broken December 15, 1999, for the Spallation Neutron Source, which will be built by 2006. Present at the groundbreaking were Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist, and members of the Tennessee congressional delegation.
ORNL's Michael Paulus and Shaun Gleason developed the MicroCAT scanner, an X-ray computed tomography system for mapping internal defects and organ changes in experimental mice. By the end of 2002, their company, ImTek, Inc., had sold 17 scanners for cancer, genetics, and drug discovery research; 75% of their customers are universities, the rest, private firms. ORNL was named a leader of DOE's Center for Research on Enhancing Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems. ORNL began studies on the sequestration, or isolation, of atmospheric or industrially produced carbon dioxide by forests and vegetation, as well as geological formations, including methane-bearing underground coal beds. ORNL's alloy studies using neutron scattering and other characterization tools led to retrofits—replacing the traditional steel with a new one—and replacements of boilers in the paper industry, making it safer and more efficient.
Vo-Dinh, Alan Wintenberg, and others developed a multifunctional biochip. Versions of it may be produced commercially for use in doctors' offices to rapidly diagnose diseases. An initiative to conduct research in nanoscience was begun. Work started in such areas as downsizing the microfluidics "lab on a chip" to a nanofluidics chip and producing and characterizing carbon nanotubes, hollow tubes about a billionth of a meter in diameter made of carbon atoms in a hexagonal arrangement. Vo-Dinh was the first to develop a nanosensor that probes the workings of a living cell. 2000 HIGHLIGHTS In April 2000, UT-Battelle became DOE's managing contractor of ORNL, replacing Lockheed Martin Energy Systems. Bill Madia was named ORNL director.
Using HRIBF, Dan Bardayan, Michael Smith, and others improved predictions of the abundances of 87 different isotopes in stellar explosions. Two new supercomputers, theIBM RS/6000 SP and Compaq AlphaServer SC, became operational. ORNL researchers evaluated the performance of these machines and developed software tools to increase the efficiency of their performance in solving scientific problems. Using PROSPECT software developed at ORNL, an ORNL team places 6th out of 123 groups worldwide in the international Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction competition, putting it in the top 4% and ahead of all other DOE labs. ORNL was one of several DOE labs involved in completing the draft sequencing of human chromosomes 5, 16, and 19. Led by Mike Karnitz and Ray Johnson, ORNL materials characterization and ceramics developments helped improve efficiency and reduce emissions of power-producing gas turbines and microturbines and diesel engines for heavy trucks. To help make future transportation safer, cleaner, and more efficient, UT and ORNL opened the National Transportation Research Center in west Knoxville. Chemical methods were devised by Arpad Vass and others to determine when murder victims died. These methods were tested on corpses at UT's Body Farm. John Tomlinson in collaboration with an industrial firm developed an energy-saving heat pump water heater. National deployment of such a device would reduce the nation's energy consumption by 1%.
The Infrared Processing Center, managed by Craig Blue, began attracting industrial users because of its potential to make metallic sheets from powder and longer-lasting coatings for metal parts. ORNL fusion theorists conceived of the Quasi-Poloidal Stellarator, which may be built at ORNL by 2007. An ORNL supercomputer was used to simulate the device's plasma and magnetic coils, as well as the use of radio waves to heat and control fusion plasmas. The goal of the research is to develop a fusion power device that is compact and cost effective. Using HRIBF, Jorg Gomez del Campo and Jim Beene led a group that discovered a new form of radioactivity-simultaneous emission of two protons from a decaying atomic nucleus. 2001 HIGHLIGHTS ORNL's gene-finding tool GRAIL, modified for use on ORNL's parallel supercomputers, and bioinformatics analyses at the Laboratory were used in landmark papers in special February issues of Science and Nature. These issues published the draft of the human genome. GRAIL was mentioned on Science's human genome program timeline.
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham visited ORNL and announced that DOE land will be transferred to ORNL for construction of new research facilities. The groundbreaking for the long-awaited Mouse House was held. It and some of the other facilities under construction are expected to open for research in July 2003.
Biologists Dabney Johnson, Culiat, and Rinchik proved they had developed mouse models for both the acute and the chronic forms of the human disease hereditary tyrosinemia, enabling laboratory tests that might lead to therapies for humans. The High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) resumed full-power operation after a 14-month outage, including replacement of its beryllium reflector; cold neutron source equipment and a building to house 15 state-of-the-art neutron scattering instruments were added. Direct-to-digital holography for high-speed, high-resolution defect inspection in semiconductor wafers was licensed to nLine. C. E. Thomas, a former ORNL researcher, is president of nLine, which is building inspection systems and marketing them to the semiconductor industry. An ORNL group led by Gene Ice and Ben Larson was the first to obtain a three-dimensional X-ray diffraction pattern of a metal's grain structure at submicron resolution. The device uses the laser-like X rays from the Advanced Photon Source at DOE's Argonne National Laboratory. Tony Mezzacappa formed a national collaboration to simulate core-collapse supernovae to pin down the star's explosion mechanism and to predict element synthesis and neutrino and gravitational wave emissions. An ORNL group led by Glenn Young and Frank Plasil developed detectors for DOE's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory to study the quark-gluon plasma, mimicking the beginning of the universe. ORNL researchers led by Hawsey helped industry (Waukesha, Southwire) develop and test a superconducting transformer and a high-temperature superconducting cable for an industrial complex. ORNL began participating in the 21st Century Truck Partnership. Laboratory staff offered their expertise in lightweight materials, intelligent vehicle systems, and advanced diesel engines to increase safety, fuel economy, and performance and to lower emissions in large trucks. DOE's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing initiative funded computational research at ORNL in astrophysics, climate prediction, and fusion plasma modeling. 2002 HIGHLIGHTS The IBM Power4 "Cheetah" supercomputer at ORNL, the 16th fastest in the world at the end of 2002, began operation. ORNL and Cray Inc., forged a partnership under the guidance of DOE and the cooperation of other national laboratories. This collaboration was expected to result in supercomputers that will exceed the capabilities of Japan's 40-teraflop Earth Simulator, the fastest computer in the world in 2002. ORNL management identified Laboratory technologies that could be used for homeland security and national defense. Jim Kulesz came up with the SensorNet concept, which won national attention and some funding; the idea was to locate radiation, chem-bio, and wind-direction monitors, computers, and communication devices at cell-phone towers to alert affected populations, emergency responders, and health-care facilities about terrorist attacks so they could take appropriate action to save lives. ORNL's boarding pass analyzer, a mass spectrometer that detects trace explosives developed by Gary Van Berkel and others, was another technology that was promoted. A third one was the AquaSentinel—developed by Eli Greenbaum and others—in which the change in detected light patterns emitted by sunlit algae taking up a poison can be used to indicate a terrorist attack on a city's drinking water system. Also, an ORNL team helped the U.S. Army envision the "soldier of the future." To provide space for more powerful supercomputers and a modernized, more-energy-efficient environment for research, construction began on new research buildings that will make up ORNL's "new campus." In August, Governor Don Sundquist and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tennessee) were present at the groundbreaking ceremony for the building that will house the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences and the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies. This building will be funded by the state of Tennessee. The other buildings under construction are being paid for by private financing through the building contractor Colliers Keenan and by DOE. The DOE budget also contained funds for the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences to be built next to the SNS and the Advanced Materials Characterization Laboratory, which will provide a quiet, vibration-free facility to house the world's best aberration-corrected electron microscopes.
Researchers at HRIBF led by David Radford were the first to create a tin-132 beam. This success will allow physicists to begin probing the storied unstable "doubly magic" nuclei—rare, short-lived isotopes valued for their rigid, closed shells of protons and neutrons in their nuclei. ORNL's direct-sampling ion trap mass spectrometer was accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for on-site characterization of waste sites. The first Habitat for Humanity house was built to showcase ORNL-tested energy-efficiency technologies, combined with photovoltaic solar collectors. The goal of this research is an affordable zero-energy home—one that produces as much energy as it consumes. ORNL became involved in three of five major programs that are funded by DOE's Genomes to Life Initiative. The largest shipment of actinium-225, extracted from ORNL's uranium-233 stockpile, was made for treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia and for medical research. ORNL's heart imaging agent— a fatty acid labeled with radioactive iodine-123—was commercially produced and used in both Russia and Japan. It has been used worldwide in over 350,000 patient studies. ORNL researchers worked on determining the identity and order of DNA bases in Populus, the first tree genome to be sequenced; the goals are enhanced carbon sequestration and production of biomass for fuels and fiber. Strong industrial interest was expressed in ORNL's 3-chrome steel for chemical pressure vessels and fossil power plant boiler equipment. OSCAR, a national software effort led by ORNL, became the most used cluster-computing management software in the world.
ORNL won NASA funding to help design a potassium Rankine cycle power conversion system that could be coupled to a nuclear reactor for a Mars-bound spacecraft. 2003 HIGHLIGHTS In January 2003, ORNL and UT-Battelle received the Laboratory's first "outstanding" rating from DOE, for fiscal year 2002 performance. By the celebration of the 60th anniversary of ORNL on February 6-7, 2003, ORNL employees were looking forward to the completion of many new facilities that are expected to host outstanding world-class research and development work. Related Web sites ORNL Review
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