Other Awards and Honors
2009 Awards
Former PNNL Interns Receive Honors for Research
On November 8-9, 100 student researchers convened in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to present their research in poster form during the annual DOE Science and Energy Research Challenge (SERCh) Poster Competition. SERCh showcases the research projects of DOE-funded undergraduate students and interns at national laboratories. Kirsten Meyer and Mike Larche, former PNNL interns, received top honors for their scientific research.
Kristen Meyer, a WSU Tri-Cities science major, worked in the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory (BSEL) on the WSU Tri-Cities campus. DOE's Office of Biomass Program funded Kristen's research under the guidance of molecular biologist Kenneth Bruno in PNNL's Fungal Biotechnology group. She placed first in the life sciences division and earned a $3,000 scholarship.
During her internship, Kristen dove into the genetics of a black mold commonly found in soil, Aspergillus niger—a filamentous, or fuzzy, fungus. Her efforts greatly improved the efficiency and speed of lab processes. She worked with Ken to advance how researchers delete genes from A. niger. The work could provide a way to use mold to make plastics and other chemicals from broken-down plant matter, called biomass. With Kristen's help, this method dramatically sped up the whole process for A. niger. "Instead of being able to delete target genes just 18 percent of the time, the new method does it 95 percent of the time, "Ken said. Now PNNL researchers only need about a week to identify genes, enabling them to study several groups of genes at once.
Mike Larche placed third in the energy division, earning a $1,000 scholarship. Mike studies physics at Eastern Washington University. This past summer he supported the Reactor Aging Management LDRD project. This project is attempting to develop new diagnostic and prognostic methods to permit life extension of the U.S. nuclear reactor fleet. The project involves development of sensing methods (eddy current, acoustic microscopy, magnetic sensing), which will detect fatigue-induced flaws in reactor components (piping, pumps, pressure vessels, etc.). Flaw data will be used to develop prognostic models to estimate the remaining lifetime of the components.
Mike worked on the "magnetic Barkhausen noise" task. In this method, steel samples are immersed in a strong magnetic field to "listen" for movement in the material. The movement is caused when tiny magnetic domains (microscopic magnets) attempt to orient themselves within the imposed field. If the steel sample is damaged due to fatigue, the magnetic domains have a harder time orienting themselves with the imposed field. (announced 11/1/2009)