Distinguished Staff Fellowship Program
Overview
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) invites you to apply to its Distinguished Staff Fellowship Program. The ORNL Distinguished Staff Fellowships are awarded to outstanding early-career scientists and engineers with demonstrated success within their academic, professional, and technical areas, who have high potential to be future science leaders. These highly competitive fellowships are available across a variety of research disciplines, including materials, nuclear, neutrons, and computation.
Distinguished Staff Fellows (DSFs) are expected to conduct scientific research of the highest quality and impact during their 3-year tenure appointment, become leaders in their fields, and be effective representatives of the Laboratory in their interactions with colleagues and with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and other sponsors of R&D at ORNL. A key aspect of this fellowship program is a mentorship plan that is designed to facilitate the successful integration of each DSF into ORNL’s scientific community and the alignment of each fellow’s research activities with DOE missions. DSFs are expected to establish the foundation for a long-term career at ORNL.
Applicants selected to become DSFs will be named to one of three fellowships, based on their scientific background. The fellowships honor three prominent scientists associated with ORNL:
- Dr. Eugene P. Wigner, 1963 Nobel Laureate in physics and first director of research and development at ORNL (1946–47), whose vision continues to be reflected in the Laboratory’s multidisciplinary programs. Wigner Fellows generally align with the fundamental sciences and demonstrate competency in areas such as advanced materials, computational science, neutron scattering, nuclear physics, and plasma and fusion energy sciences.
- Dr. Alvin M. Weinberg, the longest serving director of ORNL (1955–1972), a passionate advocate for nuclear energy whose interest in science policy placed him at the intersection of science and technology with society. Weinberg Fellows generally align with the applied sciences and demonstrate competency in areas such as computing and computational sciences, chemistry and chemical engineering, radiochemistry, isotope science, materials and nuclear science, renewable energy, and materials engineering.
- Dr. Liane B. Russell, ORNL’s groundbreaking geneticist, National Academy of Sciences member, and prominent conservationist. Russell Fellows primarily demonstrate competency in computational and experimental biology, genomics, biophysics, environmental and ecosystem sciences, and environmental assessment.
Targeted Research Directions
The candidates should demonstrate their ability to contribute to one (or more) of the research areas:
- Discovery and design of new materials and chemical processes for energy
- Scaling computing and data analytics to exascale and beyond
- Science and applications of neutron scattering
- Breakthrough nuclear technologies and systems
- Complexity in biological and environmental systems
- Isotope production and applications
- Development and manufacturing of integrated energy systems
- S&T to address complex security challenges
- Quantum Materials and Information Sciences
- Cyber Physical Systems
- Quantitative Biology and Genome Security
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning