Our researchers make fundamental discoveries in biology, chemical and materials sciences, molecular science, atmospheric sciences, and computational sciences and mathematics. Their results will transform the way the world manages its energy and environmental resources in the future.
Cracking the Codes of Building Energy Efficiency
Scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, along with building efficiency experts in China, are working to analyze the building energy codes and their enforcement systems in the U.S. and China. This work was highlighted in the recent bilateral Energy Efficiency Action Plan announced by President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao of China, which notes the countries' plans to promote greener buildings through energy efficient building codes, training building inspectors and developing advanced energy rating systems.
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Stalking the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
The hunt for the elusive neutrino mass has officially begun. This difficult-to-detect elementary particle travels close to the speed of light, is electrically neutral, and can pass through ordinary matter almost undisturbed.
In FY 2010 DOE's Office of Nuclear Physics allocated $20 million over the next four years to the Majorana Demonstrator Project, which is aimed at capturing neutrinoless double beta decay events. "If we are able to measure the rate of neutrinoless double decay, we can infer the absolute mass of the neutrino," said deputy project manager, Dick Kouzes.
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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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PNNL Postdoc Wins DOD Breast Cancer Fellowship Award
Congratulations to Dr. Hongjun Jin, a biochemistry postdoctoral fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who recently won a U.S. Department of Defense postdoctoral fellowship for breast cancer research. In this 3-year, $250K project, he will determine post-translationally modified biomarkers for the early detection of breast cancer. The research will further strengthen PNNL's protein microarray platform.
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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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