Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2021 continued apace, with developments across the lab’s broad science and technology missions. Among our most popular news stories in the past year:

Supercomputing: Supercomputers aid scientists studying the smallest particles in the universe

Susan Hubbard, an acclaimed scientific leader and researcher, has been named Deputy for Science and Technology at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her appointment is effective March 1, 2022.

“Dr. Hubbard brings skilled and passionate leadership that will enable world-leading impact across our portfolio,” said ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia. “She is a true champion of the DOE mission, the National Laboratory System and our responsibility to leverage powerful user facilities and multidisciplinary teams in the national interest.”

Three scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

The world is full of “huge, gnarly problems,” as Oak Ridge National Laboratory research scientist and musician Melissa Allen-Dumas puts it — no matter what line of work you’re in. That was certainly the case when she would wrestle with a tough piece of music.

“There are passages in music that are much harder than other passages, and that require much more practice,” said Allen-Dumas, who performed and taught the violin and viola professionally for much of her life. “It’s important to take those and break them down into easier bites for yourself, and to solve smaller problems.”

Burak Ozpineci started out at Oak Ridge National Laboratory working on a novel project: introducing silicon carbide into power electronics for more efficient electric vehicles. Twenty years later, the car he drives contains those same components and the breadth of his expertise in power systems has earned Ozpineci recognition as an ORNL Corporate Fellow.