Welcome to the Fundamental & Computational Sciences website.
I hope you take the opportunity to explore it and learn about the outstanding people, capabilities and scientific research at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
—Doug Ray, Associate Lab Director
"We strive to make progress on today's important scientific challenges."
New AAAS Fellows Honored
Laboratory Fellow Nigel Browning, Associate Laboratory Director for National Security Anthony Peurrung, Associate Laboratory Director for Fundamental & Computational Sciences Douglas Ray, and Associate Laboratory Director for Environmental Molecular Sciences Allison Campbell (left to right) were inducted as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the 2013 AAAS meeting in Boston. Learn more about our newest AAAS Fellows.
Research Highlights
Pollution Seeds Fair-Weather Clouds
New study reveals particles that seed small-scale clouds over Oklahoma
Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that fair-weather cumulus clouds contain an increasing amount of droplets formed around pollution particles. Using data collected over Oklahoma, they showed that pollution from Oklahoma City increased the number of cloud droplets and reduced their size, affecting their sunlight absorbing, light scattering and cloud-seeding performance. Seemingly innocuous fair-weather clouds occur more frequently in many areas and thus have more opportunity to affect the climate. The research indicates that pollution may be changing clouds in many more locations than previously thought.
Dick Smith to Receive Award for Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry
Richard (Dick) D. Smith, Director of Proteomics at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will receive the 2013 Award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. He was selected for the development of the electrodynamic ion funnel, a broadly applicable tool used in mass spectrometry for ion focusing and manipulation at elevated pressures that challenged conventional approaches. Smith will receive a $10,000 cash award and a recognition plaque at the ASMS Annual Conference June 9-13 in Minneapolis, MN.
The funnel was originally created in the Smith lab in 1997, and has been modified for use in a range of applications since its original development, including enabling applications in ion mobility spectrometry and new mass spectrometer ion sources.
Controlling Proton Source Speeds Catalyst in Turning Electricity into Fuels
Nickel-based catalyst three times faster with adjustments to key acid
Scientists at the Center for Molecular
Electrocatalysis demonstrated that matching the proton source's pKa to that of
a nickel-based catalyst speeds the conversion of electricity to hydrogen bonds
dramatically. Turning electricity into chemical bonds and vice versa is
necessary to capture intermittent renewable energy as use-any-time fuel. The
Center is an Energy Frontier Research Center, funded by DOE's Office of Basic
Energy Sciences, and is led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
No Downtime for Communication
New framework allows for asynchronous communication in exascale machines
To take advantage of enormous resources that next-generation super computers are expected to have, DOE researchers at PNNL designed a new put_notify capability that allows a process to initiate and complete data to another process without synchronization.
