Oak Ridge National Laboratory Visitation, Research Funding Available for Faculty, Students, Staff

Via Ashley Edwards: Calling Georgia Tech students, faculty, and researchers to collaborate with Oak Ridge National Lab!

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), located 150 miles from Georgia Tech in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is the largest of the national labs run by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. ORNL is also home to the world’s two leading neutron sources and America’s most powerful supercomputer, as well as expert researchers and facilities for materials characterization, energy grid research, and environmental biosciences.

As one of the eight core university partners of ORNL, Georgia Tech is in a unique position to partner with ORNL experts on collaborative research. ORNL also employs students in internships and serves as a superb career destination for engineers, scientists, computer scientists, energy policy experts, and others interested in applying technology to solving national and global problems.

Over the last three years, more than 100 students, faculty, and staff have made trips from Georgia Tech to ORNL that have been funded through our ongoing partnership. The results of these trips have been graduate research awards, collaborative funded grants, and newly recruited graduate students.

"I was incredibly grateful for the funds to send my graduate student to travel to ORNL to conduct an experiment while I had a funding lapse on the project," says Raquel Lieberman, Professor, School of Chemistry & Biochemistry. "Indeed, the results of this trip led to a publication and substantial NSF funding the following year. This funding also cemented our relationship with ORNL — the project continues on with a new graduate student with new publications to come."

Funding is available for individual and group trips for Georgia Tech faculty, students, and research personnel to visit ORNL — or to organize and attend workshops in collaboration with ORNL. Some of these trips have had a theme, such as early career faculty, Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) summer students, and subject matter-specific road trips for Georgia Tech faculty, researchers, and students. Group trips are a great opportunity for student clubs who have a shared interest in research occurring at national labs to explore opportunities for internships and summer programs. Applications for travel funding for Georgia Tech faculty, students, and research personnel can be submitted at Getting Acquainted with ORNL.

Based on our continued partnership with ORNL in 2020, this spring we will also launch a seed grant initiative for Georgia Tech Ph.D. students and postdoctoral students, in order to facilitate even more research between Georgia Tech and ORNL. It is our expectation that these seed grants will provide a jumping off point for new research, and also enable continued research in ongoing projects with students and postdocs leading the way. Applications are being accepted now. Apply Here.

Have more questions about visiting ORNL or applying for a seed grant? Please contact Ashley Edwards (ashley.edwards@gatech.edu).