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 30 May 2023
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The Early Career Research Program provides financial support that is foundational to early career investigators, enabling them to define and direct independent research in areas important to Department of Energy (DOE) missions. The Early Career Award Winner series provides awardees with an opportunity to explain the results of their research in their own words.
For whatever reason, we humans seem to only understand something after we have first broken it. In the case of matter, researchers have embraced this wisdom. They have created huge machines such as the Large Hadron Collider with the sole intent of breaking apart atomic nuclei, in order to understand how they actually work.
After doing my fair share of breaking things as a chemistry major undergraduate, I found my calling by focusing on exclusively virtual destruction, as a theoretical physicist. As a theorist, I can smash together all sorts of things without ever having to worry about radiation safety procedures, including colliding black holes in extra dimensions.
Read about how Paul Romatschke leveraged his Early Career Award to use theory and simulations to expand scientists' understanding of matter.
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Imaging data: A team of scientists from the DOE’s Ames National Laboratory developed a way to collect terahertz imaging data on materials in conditions that are extremely cold and in high magnetic fields. They accomplished their work with a new scanning probe microscope that was recently developed at Ames Lab. This research could support work to develop materials for quantum devices. |
Strings of magnetic energy: A team including researchers from Yale University has developed and measured a model nanomagnetic array. They found the behavior in this array can be best understood as a set of wiggling strings. The strings are composed of connected points of high energy among the lattice. The strings are peculiar in that they are limited to certain endpoints and must connect to those endpoints in particular ways. |
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Quantum computers: Researchers used DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Quantum Computing User Program to perform the first independent comparison test of leading quantum computers. The study surveyed 24 quantum processors and ranked results from each against performance numbers touted by vendors. It could provide a way to test claims by vendors. |
Earth’s crust: Researchers from Cornell University and the Smithsonian Institution eliminated a popular hypothesis about why the Earth’s crust under the continents and ocean is made of different minerals. Continental crust has much less iron than oceanic crust, which enables dry land. Using the Advanced Photon Source user facility, the scientists found that the crystallization of the mineral garnet did not cause this difference. |
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The Office of Science posted five new highlights between 5/16/23 and 5/30/23.
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Large amounts of radioactive elements or isotopes pose safety hazards to scientists and are extremely expensive. Scientists at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Oregon State University recently developed a new technique that allows scientists to take detailed chemical information from samples that are 1,000 times less massive than previous methods required. This technique will greatly expand researchers’ ability to study specific radioactive elements, especially the actinides. |
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Inverse: A strange 1950s technology could finally bring fusion energy to the grid
While donut-shaped tokamaks are the most common approach for fusion experiments, there’s an increasing interest in stellarators – plasma devices that have a twisted shape. In this feature, scientists from DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory give their insights into this technology.
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Nature: How geoscientists are making their field more welcoming
Along with other geoscientists working to make their field more inclusive, DOE Office of Science Director Asmeret Asefaw Berhe discusses efforts led by the Office of Science to improve conditions for researchers from minoritized groups.
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New DOE portal connects researchers and students with climate science and training opportunities
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The National Virtual Climate Laboratory (NVCL), a comprehensive web portal for climate science projects funded by DOE’s Office of Science’s Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, is now available.
The NVCL is a portal for those who have a stake in the climate crisis, such as researchers, students, faculty, and other interested organizations. Portal users will be able to find a wide range of national laboratory experts, programs, projects, activities, and user facilities that are engaged in climate research across the BER portfolio. The portal enables more efficient engagement with DOE’s climate science and technology. It will support building a next-generation climate workforce by facilitating equitable and inclusive training and career opportunities for students and practitioners.
Read more in our press release about the launch of the NVCL.
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National laboratories partner with minority-serving institutions to prepare students for the new energy workforce
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When scientists conduct atmospheric and other types of field research, they often do not draw on the expertise of local people. However, the Office of Science is working to help change that pattern. One way we’re doing that is by having national laboratories partner with local institutions.
DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras (UPRRP) are partnering to build capacity in the university’s Environmental Sciences Program. Researchers from Argonne and Brookhaven will visit the university to teach workshops and help with setting up an observational site. They will also assist faculty in designing two new courses.
The three institutions will engage minority students that are largely underrepresented in the atmospheric and Earth system sciences workforce. More than 95 percent of UPRRP’s student body is Hispanic.
The four-year project is one of the four awards selected by the Biological and Environmental Research program in DOE’s Office of Science as part of DOE’s Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) Initiative.
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CommUnique provides a review of recent Office of Science Communications and Public Affairs stories and features. This is only a sample of our recent work promoting research done at universities, national labs, and user facilities throughout the country.
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