2007 ORAU Annual Report - Oak Ridge Associated Universities

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Strengthening Our Partnership with UT-Battelle and ORNL to Broaden Collaborative Research Opportunities ORAU recognizes that partnerships between our member institutions and ORNL are symbiotic. With access to the world-class facilities at ORNL, faculty members are better able to realize their research goals. By drawing on the intellectual resources that reside at America’s colleges and universities, the national lab is better able to achieve its scientific objectives. The collaborative research initiatives pursued by ORAU with ORNL fortify the future of science at ORNL, which, in turn, strengthens America’s competitiveness in science and technology. Several key programs encourage these research and academic partnerships. ORAU and ORNL jointly fund the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Education Institutions (MEI) Faculty Summer Research Program, which provides minority faculty members with opportunities to do hands-on research during breaks in teaching. To date, more than 65 faculty members from 36 different institutions have participated in this program, which has led to ongoing research at the lab and joint faculty appointments. The annual ORNL Day of Science, which ORAU cosponsors and helps to organize, also introduces faculty and students to research opportunities with the lab. Another important collaborative partnership involves ORNL and the nine universities in ORAU’s University Radioactive Ion Beam (UNIRIB) consortium, which conducts leading edge basic nuclear physics research that would be impossible for one or two universities to do alone. Postdoctoral researchers and junior faculty from around the world perform groundbreaking nuclear and astrophysical experiments and achieve significant scientific advances in the investigation of unstable nuclei using ORNL’s Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF). UNIRIB consortium mentors include Furman University, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, Rutgers University, Tennessee Tech University, University of Maryland, University of Notre Dame, University of Tennessee, and Vanderbilt University. ORAU also understands the importance of matching technologies resulting from universities’ fundamental research programs with potential markets. To allow students from different disciplines to work together and gain experience in the technology commercialization process, ORAU and ORNL cosponsored Nano Nexus 2007, which assembled representatives from universities and government along with entrepreneurs and leaders of the nanotechnology industry to identify applications of nanotechnology in the marketplace. More Than 1,300 Attend 2007 Day of Science Nearly three times the number of participants and exhibitors attended the sixth annual Day of Science, cosponsored by ORAU and hosted by ORNL and DOE at the Knoxville Convention Center. The more than 1,300 students and faculty from 125 U.S. colleges and universities made this one of the largest DOE science education events ever held. The event featured speakers, a career fair, and interactive exhibits for students as well as a popular workshop for faculty that synthesized information on collaborating with DOE laboratories, working with DOE user facilities, writing proposals, and taking advantage of equipment donation and loan programs. Organizers invited all DOE labs this year, allowing the students to learn about the many career and research opportunities within the department. 14
UNIRIB Physicists Make Significant Advances in Explorations of “Star-Stuff” When Carl Sagan once famously noted that “we are star-stuff,” he meant to convey that the universe, and everything that comprises it, including ourselves, comes from the stars and from supernovae explosions. In 2007, UNIRIB physicists continued to make advances in exploring “star-stuff.” A goal of the UNIRIB collaboration is to provide experimental measurements on the properties of nuclei relevant to astrophysical processes, such as supernovae explosions. According to the big bang theory, the dense heat of the violent explosion that produced the universe some 13.7 billion years ago also produced the chemical elements of hydrogen, helium, and traces of lithium. All the other heavier elements were synthesized later in stars and supernovae explosions. It is these elements that UNIRIB scientists examine to come to a greater understanding of the origin of the universe. In May 2007, UNIRIB researchers and collaborators published significant new results in the scientific publication Physical Review Letters. The paper earned the distinction of being selected by the editors as “Suggested Reading.” The research examined a portion of the astrophysical process known as the rapid-proton capture process, or rp-process, which is one of the astrophysical processes that occurs during a supernova and is one of the processes responsible for the formation of the chemical elements, explained Chiara Mazzocchi, principal author on the paper. The final phase of the rp-process was examined, and, in a series of experiments, UNIRIB researchers and collaborators were able to show that the atomic nucleus of antimony-105, was a more stable nucleus than previously reported in the scientific literature. The result makes the rate at which protons are captured on this nucleus higher than previously thought and simultaneously does not allow for any observable spontaneous emission of protons from the nucleus, disproving a previous report. UNIRIB’s ability to provide not only funding but also the technical support, equipment, and ability to bring scientists together to collaborate made the research possible, said UNIRIB Director Ken Carter. “Providing support and facilities to university researchers in carrying out research at ORNL has been ORAU’s long-term goal as well as UNIRIB’s. So it is very satisfying to see significant research results, especially by young researchers.” Based on the results of the research, a reevaluation of the end phase of the rp-process cycle has been proposed. The paper’s authors now hypothesize that the rp-process could proceed toward heavier elements much faster than previously reported. This scenario would change the time scale, energy balance, and even the amount of helium-4, existing at the final phase of the rp-process. Image Information Chiara Mazzocchi, a guest researcher at UNIRIB from the University of Tennessee’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, was the principal author of the research paper “a Decay of 109 I and Its Implications for the Proton Decay of 105 Sb and the Astrophysical Rapid Proton-Capture Process,” which was written by UNIRIB collaborators and published in 2007. Research Tool Increases Analytic Power to Study Exotic Nuclei Studies of an exotic nucleus, such as the astrophysics study described to the left, are often impossible because the nucleus of interest constitutes only a tiny fraction of all nuclei that are produced in a particular nuclear reaction. It is especially difficult to isolate nuclei from each other that have the same combined number of protons and neutrons, so-called isobars. To overcome this common problem in nuclear structure research, UNIRIB researchers and collaborators— including ORAU’s Slava Shchepunov (pictured left) and Yuan Hu of Grinnell College—continued to develop the MTOF (Multi Pass Time-of-Flight) device, which can separate isobars, even those with very small differences in mass. UNIRIB began working on MTOF in 2004 and has made steady progress toward increasing the precision of the tool. In 2007, the analytic power had increased more than threefold, surpassing the group’s original goals for the device. Researchers are now working toward coupling the device to the mass separator at the University Isotope Separator at Oak Ridge (UNISOR). Doing so will enable many nuclear structure studies, that have been unsuccessfully attempted for decades, especially research at the extreme boundaries of nuclear stability. 15
Page 2 and 3: Published by the Communications and
Page 4 and 5: ORAU at a Glance As a consortium of
Page 6 and 7: ORISE at a Glance The Oak Ridge Ins
Page 8 and 9: Statement from the President Agains
Page 10 and 11: i n n o v a t i v e s o l u t i o n
Page 12 and 13: U n i v e r s i t y P a r t n e r s
Page 14 and 15: Enhancing Investment in the Profess
Page 18 and 19: University Professor Helps Develop
Page 20 and 21: Houston Teacher Ready for New Scien
Page 22 and 23: Science Education Programs “The d
Page 24 and 25: ORAU Commits to the Future of Scien
Page 26 and 27: ORAU Partners with Oak Ridge Nation
Page 28 and 29: Research Programs a Win-Win for Par
Page 30 and 31: Students/Teachers “Vacation” at
Page 32 and 33: NASA Postdoc Program Offers Fellows
Page 34 and 35: Marvin L. Wesely Distinguished Grad
Page 36 and 37: S c i e n t i f i c a n d Te c h n
Page 38 and 39: ORISE Coordinates First DHS Univers
Page 40 and 41: Photo courtesy of the National Canc
Page 42 and 43: Worker Health Programs “We are co
Page 44 and 45: Former DOE Worker Medical Screening
Page 46 and 47: I n d e p e n d e n t E n v i r o n
Page 48 and 49: ORISE Helps DOE Restore Environment
Page 50 and 51: ORISE Intern Helping to Grow Use of
Page 52 and 53: N a t i o n a l S e c u r i t y a n
Page 54 and 55: ORISE Teams to Develop Web-Based Di
Page 56 and 57: Golden Guardian Exercise a Success
Page 58 and 59: Hoover Dam Exercise to Test Respons
Page 60 and 61: Radiation Emergency Medicine Progra
Page 62 and 63: Hiroshima Fallout Expert Collaborat
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H e a l t h C o m m u n i c a t i o
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ORISE Helps HHS Test Continuity of
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ORISE/NCI Partner on Teaching End-o
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Tool Improves Malaria Treatment Pol
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Community Partnerships Oak Ridge Pu
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ORAU Management Key Office Contact
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2007 ORAU Sponsoring Institutions A
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2007 ORAU Annual Report - Oak Ridge Associated Universities

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