We are attaining a molecular-level understanding of complex multi-phase systems and phenomena vital to the nation's energy and environmental resources.
Computational Science Programming Model Crosses the Petaflop Barrier
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated that the PNNL-developed Global Arrays computational programming model can perform at the petascale level. The demonstration performed at 1.3 petaflops-or 1.3 quadrillion numerical operations per second—using over 200,000 processors. This represents about 50% of the processors' peak theoretical capacity. Global Arrays is one of only two parallel programming models that have achieved this level of performance.
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Wendy Shaw Awarded Early Career Grant for Catalysis Research
Congratulations to Dr. Wendy Shaw of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on winning a prestigious Department of Energy Early Career Research Program grant. This grant funds Shaw to design effective, inexpensive catalysts that mimic some of the design principles found in natural enzymes.
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Team Solving Water's Mysteries Thanks to INCITE Award
Scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and two Swiss institutes received 12 million hours of supercomputing time, thanks to the 2010 INCITE Leadership Computing award from the Department of Energy. Now, the team will be able to continue running calculations that explain the physics of reactions in bulk and at interfaces. "Understanding the reactions that occur in the vicinity of interfaces have far-reaching implications in many disciplines," said Dr. Christopher Mundy, a physical chemist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
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The Package Matters
When it comes to squeezing hydrogen out of ammonia borane, the packaging matters, according to scientists from three national labs. Ammonia borane releases hydrogen with heating by a multi-step reaction, but the nominal heating required to release that hydrogen requires additional energy, decreasing the overall efficiency.
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Liem Dang Named Adjunct Professor at Australian University
Congratulations to Dr. Liem Dang at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on being named an adjunct faculty member of the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland, Australia. In this role, Dang will work with students who are inventing, designing, and managing products and processes that transform raw materials into valuable products via biology, chemistry, and physics.
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The Efficacy of Bacteria
Marching to their own drummer. That's what bacteria from different environments do when turning toxic, mobile selenium into a less dangerous, non-mobile form, according to a study led by Dr. Carolyn Pearce. Pearce, formerly of the University of Manchester, is now conducting her research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The research she and her team did graced the November 2009 cover of Environmental Technology. This was a special issue for the Chalocogen Cycle Science and Technology Conference.
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The Science of Moving Protons in Catalytic Reactions
At the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, established by the Department of Energy in 2009, our scientists are striving to determine how to move protons efficiently in reactions needed for broader use of fuel cells and solar energy.
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Scientists Show How Bacteria Move Electrons Across a Membrane
Scientists at the University of East Anglia, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Pennsylvania State University have demonstrated for the first time the mechanism by which some bacteria can transfer electrons across a membrane to the cell exterior, allowing them to "breathe" metals. These iron-respiring bacteria link the cycling of iron and carbon in subsurface and surface sediments and can catalyze the immobilization of subsurface contaminants such as uranium.
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