Latest news with #RidgeNationalLaboratory
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
I'm a public school kid who became a Harvard scientist. Trump's cuts impact me.
Growing up in Middle Tennessee, I often heard about Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a secretive location where brilliant scientists work. I was fascinated by Oak Ridge, classroom experiments and the concept of laboratories, but I never imagined becoming a scientist myself. It was just never in the cards. During the late 2010s, the curriculum in my public high school was not oriented towards higher education — it was geared solely towards getting students to graduate. Aiming higher and attending college — especially graduate school — wasn't included. But I took a shot and applied for scholarships. I was thankful for the Tennessee HOPE scholarship, the Middle Tennessee-based Scarlett Family Foundation and public funding from my college that allowed me to attend the University of Tennessee to study engineering. While at UT Knoxville, I got to live a dream and work at the Oak Ridge I had always heard about, and it turns out that it isn't just about nuclear reactors. I quickly learned that hundreds of scientists from around the world were in the hills of East Tennessee, finding solutions for problems in manufacturing and energy sciences for the United States. These experiences inspired me to continue my education and to help develop technologies that could improve people's lives. Several years have passed since my time at UT Knoxville and at Oak Ridge. I have since participated in U.S. Fulbright and National Science Foundation fellowships that gave me the opportunity to share my knowledge internationally, as I continue to work to solve important problems in manufacturing. More: As DOGE cuts federal funds, Tennessee departments balk at releasing details of lost money Today, I'm pursuing a Ph.D. in materials science and mechanical engineering at Harvard University, where I use 3D printing technologies to manufacture customized parts affordably. With 3D printing, we can customize everything we make for highly specialized uses, including for personalized medical devices or manufacturing in remote locations where there are long supply lines. The technologies I'm developing are designed for accessibility, so that communities like those in rural Tennessee can one day have access to them, whether for medicine or customized agricultural seeding and crop monitoring. However, the future of other prospective scientists is now in jeopardy. As you may have heard, the current presidential administration is actively attacking universities and pulling federal grant funding. I've been directly impacted: The primary grant that supports my team has been canceled, and my National Science Foundation fellowship has been terminated — simply because I'm affiliated with Harvard. These grant cuts aren't just numbers in a budget. They directly hurt students and young researchers like me. Federal grants like ours are not given away. They are awarded competitively, and research groups earn them based on their responses to goals posed by U.S. government agencies. From nuclear power and MRIs, to life-saving vaccines for diseases like measles and polio, none would have been possible without public scientific funding that was guided by expert review. But if defunding continues, we will lose our ability to track environmental changes that affect our food systems, and we will prevent the discovery of medical advancements that can save millions of lives. More: Nearly 400 Nashville nonprofits risk losing $1.5 billion in federal funding. What to know As researchers and scientists, our goal is simple: to understand, to improve and to serve, and we can't do any of that without financial support. I implore you to stand up for science in the coming elections and show your support by filling out the Citizens for Science Pledge. The fate of scientific progress is, in many ways, the fate of our country. If public school children in Tennessee can no longer dream of becoming scientists, astronauts or doctors — because we don't support them — what kind of future do we aim to build? Jackson Wilt is a Middle Tennessean and Ph.D. Candidate at Harvard University researching low-cost 3D printing technologies. He also teaches engineering and science to K-12 and college students. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Trump's research cuts hurt students, scientists and you | Opinion
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
US scientists simulate how tens of thousands of electrons move in materials in real time
Scientists have developed a simulation that can predict how tens of thousands of electrons move in materials in real time, or natural time rather than compute by a team from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with North Carolina State University, the model combines ORNL's expertise in time-dependent quantum methods with NCSU's advanced quantum simulation revealed that the latest effort is vital in designing new technologies such as advanced photovoltaic cells and emerging information systems. They underlined that by directly observing thousands of electrons in real-time, scientists gain powerful insights into how materials respond at the quantum in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, the team developed a real-time, time-dependent density functional theory, or RT-TDDFT, capability within the open-source Real-space Multigrid, or RMG, code to model systems of up to 24,000 is a quantum mechanical method that allows researchers to simulate how electrons move and interact in materials over time, once they are excited by an external stimulus. It works by calculating how the electron density in materials changes in response to the application of electric and electromagnetic fields (i.e. light), for instance. Researchers highlighted that the real-time, time-dependent describes the real-time evolution of the wavefunction or quantum-mechanical property. 24,000 electrons is about the same size as treating 4,000 carbon atoms or 2,400 water molecules treating the time evolution of all their electrons. "Think of it like watching a slow-motion replay of all the electrons in a tiny piece of metal responding to a flash of light, but at an incredibly detailed, quantum level," said ORNL's Jacek Jakowski."Our calculations are so large that they require one of the world's fastest supercomputers to run them in 'real time'. By capturing these electron movements at scale, we can predict how new materials will behave, potentially leading to more efficient photovoltaic cells, faster computers, and better quantum technologies." The study revealed that their method offers insights into nonequilibrium dynamics and excited states across a diverse range of systems, from small organic molecules to large metallic nanoparticles. Benchmarking results demonstrate excellent agreement with established TDDFT implementations and showcase the superior stability of our time integration algorithm, enabling long-term simulations with minimal energy drift. Researchers also highlighted that metallic nanoparticles, or metals with dimensions within 1-100 nanometers, have unique optical properties caused by the way thousands of electrons within these metals interact with incoming light. It's critical for researchers to understand the ways these electrons move under a range of conditions to advance these new technologies. The challenge in moving these technologies forward has been capturing these ultrafast electron dynamics in realistic nanoscale materials, or materials where at least one dimension is on the scale of nanometers, according to a press release. The study underlined that the achievement enables the design of novel materials with tunable optical, electronic and magnetic properties and opens the door to new innovations in optical and quantum information devices. "These developments hold great promise for creating novel devices with tailored electronic, optical and magnetic properties," said Professor Bernholc. "Ultimately, we hope our real-time approach will guide experimental efforts and accelerate breakthroughs in areas ranging from spintronics to quantum information science." Next steps for the project include simulating even more complex scenarios to discover new physics in quantum systems and enhancing efficiency and accuracy to handle larger, more intricate simulations, as per the release.
