Ideas expresso Elbio Dagotto aims to join in the Lab's neutron, nano, computational buzz The espresso maker is Elbio Dagotto's

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U.S. Department of Energy                                  Number 81, September 2006

Ideas expresso
Elbio Dagotto aims to join in the Lab’s neutron, nano, computational buzz

T    he espresso maker is Elbio Dagotto’s
     most trusted piece of equipment when it
comes to creating sparks for scientific theory.
                                                      “It is not necessarily at
                                                   conferences or flying all over
                                                   the world to talks that the
                                                                                                                        Now, Elbio and Adriana work
                                                                                                                        with ORNL’s Condensed
                                                                                                                        Matter Theory group.
The condensed matter physicist swears by the       top experts get together and                                            Elbio says his work, in
coffee machine so much that he bought sev-         discuss ideas,” Elbio says,                                          very simple terms, centers
eral when he moved to Tennessee.                   “it is usually mere informal                                         on simulating what electrons
   He needed one for home, one for the Spall-      face to face discussions that                                        are doing inside different
ation Neutron Source, one for his office at the    help, and the SNS brings the                                         materials, but because these
University of Tennessee. He just needed one        experts to you.”                                                     particles act so exotically at
wherever he was going to be.                          In addition to sparking                                           the atomic level, that expla-
   “You never know where you are going to          intellectual discussions, the                                        nation is basic. He works
get good ideas. You could be at home, in a         neutron source will provide                                          on computer simulations to
plane or in your office,” Elbio, who is part of    the most powerful flux of                                            mimic how materials self-
the Materials Science and Technology Divi-         neutrons so that scientists                                          organize, or arrange electrons
sion, says. “But a lot of good ideas come          can explore the crystal lat-                                         in unusual patterns; why at
from talking with researchers from around the      tice structure of the minutest                                       lower temperatures materials
world, usually informally over a cup of coffee     materials. That can lead to a                                        act as superconductors; and
or something.”                                     better knowledge of materi-                                          why some materials are sensi-
   The future espresso breaks at the SNS           als’ structure and particle     Condensed matter physicist           tive to magnetic fields.
excite Elbio because he says that at least         interactions at that level,     Elbio Dagotto prefers to                Most recently, Elbio
                                                                                   place himself where ideas
a fraction of the 2,000 users that the facil-      which will help Elbio and                                            accepted an invitation to sit
                                                                                   are flowing.
ity expects to host each year will share his       other theorists explain more                                         on the National Academy of
research interests. As a condensed matter          definitively what is happen-                                         Sciences’ Solid State Sciences
theorist, Elbio finds himself trying to under-     ing at that small scale.                            Committee, which steers national materials
stand the properties of high-temperature              The SNS was one of the facilities that           research. The committee reports to the Board
superconductors, colossal magnetic resistance      attracted Elbio and his wife, Adriana Moreo,        on Physics and Astronomy about the needs of
materials and nanomaterials. He says the new       to Oak Ridge in 2004. Two other Lab facili-         materials research and the development and
facility will bring not only beneficial collabo-   ties also interested the couple—the Center          application of those findings to the commu-
ration for science and technology, but also        for Nanophase Materials Sciences and the            nity, and it guides federal agencies regarding
intellectual expansion.                            National Center for Computational Sciences.
                                                                                                                             (See Dagotto, back page)

In Washington, Muhs helped shape science initiatives
I  n the past six years, ORNL’s research bud-
   get has been mostly flat. For fiscal-year
2007, however, the Department of Energy
                                                   the Oval Office on Dec. 15, 2005. That
                                                   was Jeff’s last day in Washington. The
                                                   document, titled “Keeping America On
budget request for science is up 14 percent.       Top,” spelled out a pathway for America
   “Most Lab researchers don’t realize they        to maintain its competitive edge while
have Sen. Alexander, in part, to thank for this    solving the energy challenge.
increase,” says Jeff Muhs, who spent a year           Starting in February 2005, the ORNL
in Washington as the science aide to Tennes-       engineer helped the senator during the
see Sen. Lamar Alexander. Jeff, who pio-           formulation and debate of an energy bill
neered vehicle weigh-in-motion and hybrid          that later became the Energy Policy Act
solar lighting technologies, witnessed several     of 2005. “Because Sen.Alexander is an
events in 2005 that may lead to America’s          emerging leader on the Senate Commit-
energy independence and increased competi-         tee on Energy and Natural Resources, I
                                                                                               ORNL’s Jeff Muhs (right) helped Senator Lamar
tiveness in science and technology.                had the unique opportunity to help on a Alexander shape the U.S. science competitiveness and
   The memory Jeff most treasures is the           major piece of legislation,” Jeff says.     energy initiatives.
privilege he had to draft a one-page sum-             After expressing concern that “Amer-
mary document that Senator Alexander               ica’s brainpower edge over China and
polished and handed to President Bush in           India is eroding,” the senator asked Jeff’s                                      (See D.C., page 2)
D.C.
                        Continued from page 1
                                                                                                                                : Jeff Muhs
help in developing a competitiveness agenda.                                                                  Halls of power
                                                                                                                                   t) is flanked by
Jeff’s job was to find experts on the subject                                                                 (second from lef rs Kathryn
                                                                                                                                staffe
and invite them to meet with the senator.                                                                     fellow Senate
                                                                                                                                   enici), Jonathan
    On May 11, the senator, with Jeff’s notes                                                                  Clay (Sen. Dom aman) and
                                                                                                                              . Bi  ng
in hand, delivered an invited talk on competi-                                                                 Epstein (Sen
                                                                                                                  rry H in kle  (S en. Dorgan)
                                                                                                               Je
tiveness to the National Academies (National                                                                                     nate Energy
                                                                                                               outside the Se                       ter
Academy of Sciences, National Academy of                                                                                  ee  he  aring room af
                                                                                                                Committ                 in g th at
Engineering and the Institute of Medicine).                                                                     the Oct. 17th    he  ar
There he posed the question, “What are the                                                                                         the President’s
                                                                                                                helped launch                           d
top 10 things we can do for America to keep                                                                            ican  C  om   petitiveness an
                                                                                                                 Amer                     initiatives.
its competitive edge in science and technol-                                                                               d  En  er  gy
                                                                                                                 Advance
ogy?” The upshot was that the Academies
asked Sen. Alexander to write a formal letter
commissioning the Academies to prepare
a report that addressed his question. After
receiving a bipartisan letter co-signed by
Senators Alexander and Jeff Bingaman, the
                                                 Alexander called for the report’s recommen-
                                                 dations to be a central focus of the President’s   ORNL People
Academies appointed a 20-person committee        State of the Union address and domestic
chaired by Norman Augustine, retired chair-      agenda.
                                                                                                       The Materials S&T Division’s Ted Bes-
man of Lockheed Martin.                             The former governor, university president
                                                                                                    mann has been appointed a science advisor to
    Jeff challenged the Academies to seek        and cabinet-level secretary elevated the
                                                                                                    the U.S.-Israel Bi-national Science Founda-
fresh ideas from young researchers and           report further by handing it to Vice President
                                                                                                    tion. The foundation was established in 1972
teachers. One researcher selected was            Cheney on Air Force II and spearheading
                                                                                                    by the governments of the United States and
ORNL’s Craig Blue, who attended an all-day       “homework” sessions attended by other sena-
                                                                                                    Israel to promote and support cooperative sci-
brainstorming session at the Academies in        tors, science policy makers and advisors at
                                                                                                    entific and technological research for peaceful
August 2005.                                     the Administration’s highest levels, as well as
                                                                                                    purposes and for the benefit of both countries.
    On October 5, Augustine briefed Sen.         outside experts like former ORNL Director
                                                                                                       Bob Hawsey has been named director of
Alexander on the report, titled “Rising          Bill Madia.
                                                                                                    ORNL’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable
above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and           On December 15, Senators Alexander,
                                                                                                    Energy programs. For the past several years
Employing America for a Brighter Economic        Domenici and Bingaman met with President
                                                                                                    Bob has managed the Lab’s Electric Trans-
Future.” The report called for increased fund-   Bush in the White House to push the competi-
                                                                                                    mission and Distribution program.
ing for basic research.                          tiveness and energy agendas. They handed the
                                                                                                       Jeremy Busby of the Materials S&T
    “To get more American students excited       president the Academies’ report summarized
                                                                                                    Division has received the American Nuclear
about studying science and technology, the       by Jeff.
                                                                                                    Society’s 2006 Landis Young Member Engi-
report recommended mobilizing our vast              In his State of the Union address on Janu-
                                                                                                    neering Achievement Award. Past ORNL
scientific resources to solve America’s energy   ary 31, 2006, the president announced the
                                                                                                    winners include Tim Valentine, Yousry Azmy,
challenge,” Jeff says. “Just as Americans        American Competitiveness Initiative and the
                                                                                                    Ted Besmann and Everett Bloom.
rallied around President Kennedy’s goal of       Advanced Energy Initiative for reducing U.S.
                                                                                                       The Chemical Sciences Division’s Parans
sending a man to the moon during the Cold        addiction to foreign oil. To show appreciation
                                                                                                    Paranthaman was invited to write an
War, the challenge today—as America com-         for Sen. Alexander’s hard work in developing
                                                                                                    article on superconductor wires for the 2006
petes with China and India in an emerging        the two initiatives, the president touted them
                                                                                                    McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Tech-
jobs war—is to motivate ingenious Ameri-         in Nashville the next day.
                                                                                                    nology. The yearbook “...provides a broad
cans to develop a clean, reliable and afford-       “I was invited to Nashville to hear the
                                                                                                    overview of important recent developments
able energy supply.”                             president promote the two initiatives I worked
                                                                                                    in science, technology, and engineering, as
    The senator made the Academies’ report       on,” Jeff recalls with excitement, adding he
                                                                                                    selected by a distinguished board of consult-
the subject of an October 17 hearing before      knew whom to thank.—Carolyn Krause
                                                                                                    ing editors.”
the Energy and Natural Resources commit-
                                                                                                       The Nuclear & Radiological Protection
   tee chaired by Senator Pete Domenici. Sen.
                                                                                                    Division’s Steve Sims has been elected a
                                                                                                    fellow of the Health Physics Society, one of
                                                                                                    only three ORNL staff members to receive
                                                                                                    the honor.
           is published for employees and retirees of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which             The Environmental Sciences Division’s
      is managed by UT-Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy.                                  Virginia Dale and the Engineering S&T
                                                                                                    Division’s Kathy Johnson were honored by
    Bill Cabage, editor, 865/574-4399 or cabagewh@ornl.gov                                          the Knoxville YWCA’s Tribute to Women.
                                                                                                    Virginia won in the science and technology
    Deborah Barnes, associate editor, 865/576-0470 or barnesds@ornl.gov                             category; Kathy won in the administrative-
                                                                                                    clerical professional category.
    On the Web: www.ornl.gov/reporter                                                                  Retired ORNL environmental toxicologist
                                                                                                    Faye Martin received the lifetime achieve-
    DOE Inspector General Hotline: 1-800-541-1625                                                   ment award at this year’s Oak Ridge YWCA
                                                                                                    banquet.
2                                                                                                                                     September 2006
ized system that allows        McDonald and Alon Savidor, a doctoral
                                                                             them to communicate            candidate with the University of Tennes-
                                                                             with authorities and           see-ORNL Genome Science and Technology
                                                                             each other. Part of            Program and assigned to the Life Sciences
                                                                             ORNL’s SensorNet               Division, were among a number of authors
                                                                             program is to make that        of a recent paper, published in Science, that
                                                                             network possible.              describes sequencing the genomes of Phy-
                                                                                “Our goal is to do          tophthora sojae and Phytophthora ramorum,
                                                                             for sensors what the           the soybean and oak diseases, respectively.
                                                                              Internet did for comput-      UT, ORNL and a number of universities and
                                                                              ers,” Bryan Gorman            labs worked with DOE’s Joint Genome Insti-
                                                                              of the Computational          tute and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
                                                                          Sciences and Engineering          on the four-year project.
                                                                        Division says.                         Crop losses to P. sojae already exceed
                                                                        The first step in establish-        $1 billion annually. Although the oak disease
                                                                   ing a sensor network is to agree         has been confined to the west coast,
                                                                upon technical standards. However,          P. ramorum has been detected in nurseries in
                                                    Bryan and others observed a lack of clar-               the east, and foresters are worried about yet
Imaging project monitors the grid                   ity within industry about which standards to            another woodland blight. Researchers hope
   ORNL’s role in the Hurricane Katrina             adopt.                                                  the genome sequencing will provide clues on
recovery was documented in Reporter last fall          Together with the National Institute of              how to combat the pathogens.—B.C.
(No. 72), describing the Geographic Informa-        Standards and Technology and Department of
tion S&T group’s work for DOE’s Office of           Defense, ORNL hosted a conference August                It pays to teach in East Tennessee
Electrity Delivery and Energy Reliability in        2-3 to harmonize the fundamental standards.                Students in Union and Morgan counties
assessing the storm season’s impact on popu-           “We wanted to bring in people with a com-            have new math and science teachers this
lations, railways and ports.                        mon interest in sensor networks but from dif-           fall, in some instances where they had none,
   The Lab’s role has continued and grown.          ferent groups to help them understand where             thanks in part to a UT-Battelle effort to draw
A program that originated as a Lab-Directed         the state of the art is,” he says. “Hopefully           teachers to the rural school systems. The
R&D project to visualize, in real time, the         it will lead to cooperative and collaborative           ORNL contractor offered a $10,000 “signing
health of the electricity grid was recently cited   efforts.”                                               bonus” in return for a three-year commitment
by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman as one               Bryan wants that collaboration to lead to a          to teach school in the communities.
of the ways DOE has enhanced its prepared-          dynamic framework that will define how sen-                As a result, three teachers have signed on,
ness for the 2006 storm season.                     sors communicate and give sensor developers             two in Union County and one in Morgan
   The project is a collaboration between the       guidelines for how to develop sensors that              County. Barbara Roark is teaching math at
Computational Sciences & Engineering Divi-          work with the network.                                  Union County High School.
sion, the Engineering S&T Division and the             He says lessons learned                                                  “This is a great recruiting
Tennessee Valley Authority, which is a major        about networking and stan-                                               tool for schools and a terrific
player in the national power grid.                  dards implementation from                                                career incentive for the teach-
   “The LDRD was to do wide-area visualiza-         the Internet’s development                                               ers,” says Roark, who will
tion and state estimation of the electric grid,”    process should allow the sen-                                            teach math under the program
explains CSED’s Arjun Shankar. “The project         sor community to get to a                                                at Union County High School.
got momentum after the 2003 blackout. What          global sensor network sooner.
became clear was if there is a wider-area              Commercial vendors have
awareness of what’s happening in the grid,          readily adopted standards at
individual operators can react better and get a     SensorNet test-beds in places
predictive sense of what’s happening.               like Fort Bragg, demonstrat-
   “We’re helping DOE get visualization info        ing that standards adoption is
of grid status on their displays for situational    commercially viable.
awareness—live information—of the electric             Now all that Bryan and
                                                                                                                                                               Manuel Gillispie
grid,” he says.                                                                         (From left) Jennifer Wilson,
                                                    his colleagues need to do is
   “The first thrust of the OEDER program                                               Barbara Roark and Rocky
                                                    convince the rest of the world Warren are filling science and
was to do hurricane-time visualization before,      to agree on those standards.        math teaching positions this fall.
during and after a storm to give responders         —C.S.
a sense of what is happening with the grid.                                                                 “This program is one of the main reasons I’m
DOE is an important source of information.          Sequencers target plant maladies                        here.”
The visualizations would help support the           ORNL researchers have joined the fight                     Jennifer Wilson also arrived in Union
response to problems,” Arjun says.                  against two plant pathogens, soybean root rot           County for her first teaching job. Rocky War-
   Arjun says the work shows the often              disease and sudden oak death. The plant mal-            ren, who did postdoctoral work at ORNL, will
maligned U.S. power grid actually does its job      adies are as potentially bad as they sound—             teach chemistry, physics and biology in Mor-
pretty well.                                        one threatens a vital food crop, the other has          gan County.
   “The grid works so well that we take it for      the potential to devastate eastern woodlands.              UT-Battelle, which has also invested
granted,” he says.—B.C.                                Both diseases are of the Phytophthora, or            approximately $350,000 in equipping school
                                                    “plant destroyer,” species, a fungus-like group         science labs in the region, says it is prepared
Standard language for threat detection              responsible for, among other catastrophes, the          to offer five signing bonuses a year and hopes
  Sensors can detect threats like nuclear or        nineteenth-century Irish Potato Famine.                 the idea catches on with other companies.
biological weapons, but there is no standard-          The Chemical Sciences Division’s Hayes                  Reported by Bill Cabage and Charlie Smith

ORNL Reporter                                                                                                                                            3
Marketable skill
CCS intern’s ambition uncovers another application for EVEREST lab’s capabilities
                                                  ter participants learn through the visualiza-        with her over the summer and watch her
N     ekkion Crowder came to Oak Ridge
      National Laboratory’s Computer Sci-
ences Division as an intern, set to write code
                                                  tion techniques she’s been practicing. Most
                                                  important, Nekkion says Pat’s enthusiasm for
                                                                                                       grow.”
                                                                                                          Sean says Nekkion’s internship didn’t pro-
that would detect bugs in visualization soft-     the project gave her confidence to pursue her        duce the intended results, but that the project
ware that runs on the EVEREST theater.            goal.                                                proved valuable in exploring and demonstrat-
   One week after her arrival, the rising Fisk       “When I first came I was very very con-           ing yet another use for EVEREST.
University computer science major—intern-         fused about what I wanted to do,” she said.             “I could have stuck to my guns and said,
ing through ORNL’s Research Alliance in           “Now I’m really excited about the youth cen-         ‘You’re going to do the project I assigned,’”
Math and Science program—realized she             ters. Pat made me believe I could do it.”            he says. “But I don’t want people going away
wasn’t having much fun.                              “What a thrill to see Nekkion’s market-           from Oak Ridge saying, ‘What a terrible
   “I just felt like I was doing what I was       ing data displayed on EVEREST for the first          place to work.’ An internship ought to be ben-
doing in the classroom,” Nekkion says she         time,” Pat says. “It’s been really fun to work       eficial to both sides.”—Larisa Brass
told her mentor, Sean Ahern, with ORNL’s
Center for Computational Sciences. “He
asked me what my passion was and what I
would like to do.”                                                                                                                     Center for
   The result was a project that for the first                                                                                         Computational
time used computer visualization to map                                                                                                Sciences intern
out market research—a potential tool for the                                                                                           Nekkion
Laboratory’s technology transfer program                                                                                               Crowder
and other business-oriented applications.                                                                                              plots market
   With a double major in computer science                                                                                             research data
and psychology, the Milwaukee native’s                                                                                                 using ORNL’s
                                                                                                                                       EVEREST
dream is to open youth centers that would                                                                                              visualization
target young men and women—ages 12 to                                                                                                  laboratory.
21—with an emphasis on technology as well
as traditional education and recreational pro-
grams.
   Sean tapped Pat Richardson, who oversees
marketing research in ORNL’s Technology
Transfer and Economic Development Divi-
                                                  Interns pay tribute to their mentors
sion, to see if there was a way to explore
Nekkion’s idea using his business expertise.
   Pat was enthusiastic, proposing that Nek-
                                                  R     esearchers who spent time with this summer’s interns were honored on August 29 in a cer-
                                                         emony sponsored by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, which administers
                                                  most of the Lab’s internships. Following are excerpts of some of the testimonials from the stu-
kion could do market research on her con-         dents about their mentors.
cept, pinpointing the locations of current cen-      “Through the time I’ve spent with him and advice given by him, I now know that I can truly
ters and using geographic information system      do anything I set my mind to.” Mentor: Auroop Ganguly, Computational Sciences & Engineer-
data to map out the best prospective sites.       ing Division
   “We basically struck gold,” Sean says.            “At the end of every discussion, he would leave with a ‘Thanks,’ making me feel my time was
“Then the challenge was one of, how do we         valuable.” Mentor: George Fann, Computer Science & Mathematics Division
keep this rooted in computer science using           “When one of our experiments failed, I thought there was nothing to gain from the results.
EVEREST?”                                         He helped me to realize that the data that we obtained were important.” Mentor: Joe Birdwell,
   Nekkion accomplished this by tying the         Nuclear S&T Division
data she uncovered into visualization soft-          “After spending two years of doing nothing but studying ‘boring’ textbooks and taking tests,
ware that allowed her to display the informa-     I had sort of lost a bit of desire to learn physics. My experiences working with my mentor have
tion on EVEREST, mapping out the location         changed that.” Mentor: Steve Allison, Engineering S&T Division
of current centers and, county-by-county, the        “He threw me into the deep waters of scientific research and showed me how to swim!” Men-
density of child populations across the coun-     tor: Michael Simpson, Materials S&T Division
try. Part of the project included identifying        “I was a guest in her house on several occasions for wonderful dinners where I was exposed to sci-
the longitude and latitude for each center that   entists from many different countries and cultures.” Mentor: Sara Pozzi, Nuclear S&T Division
fit the category Nekkion had established and         “My mentor never treated me as if I was any less educated, continually valuing my input and
creating a database that could be displayed       respecting my opinions.” Mentor: Justin Baba, Engineering S&T Division
on the 30-foot by 8-foot projector wall. In          “He always made us feel a part of the “team” and never like interns.” Mark Bevelhimer, Envi-
addition, Nekkion waded through many              ronmental Sciences Division
categories of demographic data to determine          “He gives me insights on graduate study schedules, fellowships and, most of all, ‘How not to
the best way to visualize the most promising      go crazy while ‘limbo-ing’ your dissertation work!’” Derek Austin, Materials S&T Division
sites.                                               Other mentors honored were J.T. Simpson, T.J. Blasing, Joanna McFarlane, Mariappan
   “I wanted to see where things were visu-       Paranthaman, Bruce Pint, Kelly Roy, Ian Gross and Brad Weil. Outstanding educators honored
ally, because I’m a visual learner,” she says,    included Debbie McCoy, Elias Greenbaum, Marty Schweitzer, Johney Boyd Green Jr. and Say-
adding that her experience with EVEREST           lor Hummel, Edgar Lara-Curzio and Karen Simonson, Michael Smith, April McMillan, Nancy
has given her tools to help future youth cen-     Gray and Lee Riedinger, as well as the Nuclear S&T Division’s educational program.—B.C.

4                                                                                                                                   September 2006
Cellulose-producing bacteria may
hold key to advanced bone repair treatments
A     fter biting into a piece of Nata de Coco,
      it is hard to imagine that bacteria, not
humans, synthesize the bulk of this sweet
                                                        biomedical engineering student had to figure
                                                        how to produce a bone-like structure to infuse
                                                        into the bacterial gel. She became especially
                                                                                                               “It really reminded me of bone itself,” she
                                                                                                            says.
                                                                                                               Her findings appeared in Biomaterials in
treat. We can thank Gluconacetobacter, a                interested in bone replacement after a family       April. Stacy is preparing the required paper
nonpathogenic, cellulose-producing bacte-               member required the use of bone grafts to           work to conduct a biological study in which
rium, for the popular Filipino dessert. And             reinforce a jaw
if dessert is not enough to bolster the little          bone prior to
creature’s resumé, add to it the fact that the          dental implanta- Bone gel might be the answer to short supplies
bacterium’s by-product has the potential to             tion surgery.
save our bones and our body.                               Submerging
                                                                              of cadaver tissue that surgeons use when treating
   Gluconacetobacter bacteria secrete a                 the pellicle in       severely damaged bone tissue or performing recon-
polysaccharide layer, called a pellicle, as             calcium and
their cloak of protection against ultraviolet           then phosphate        structive surgery.
radiation and drying. Requiring oxygen for              solutions, Stacy
survival, these aerobic bacteria primarily live         was able to                                         she will implant her bone-like gel into an ani-
at the surface of their liquid home, which              form calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite, which        mal model. That test will determine whether
consists of yeast, glucose, protein and water.          is the main mineral component for bone              the bone gel can attract developing bone cells,
   Each bacterium exudes a strand of cel-               and stimulates bone growth and regenera-            or osteoblasts, to an injured area and elicit
lulose that bonds to other strands, forming             tion when implanted, she says. Placing that         bone regeneration. The calcium-deficient
a ribbon that is about                                                                                               hydroxyapatite crystallizes into a
three nanometers thick,                                                                                              layer that would allow real bone tissue
70 nanometers wide                                                                                                   to rapidly bond with it, Stacy says.
and between one and                                                                                                     Since bone is the second most
nine micrometers long.                                                                                               implanted tissue next to blood, Stacy’s
Braiding and overlap-                                                                                                bone gel might be the answer to the
ping the ribbons, the                                                                                                short supply of cadaver tissue that
bacteria then twist the                                                                                              surgeons use when treating severely
cellulose into crystal                                                                                               damaged bone tissue or performing
lattice layers that lie on                                                                                           reconstructive surgery. Hugh O’Neill,
top of each other, giving                                                                                            one of Stacy’s mentors at ORNL, says
depth to the pellicle.                                                                                               that the bone gel is ideal because it is
    “We just lift off that                                                                                           clean and it is not immunogenic.
layer, clean it, and then                                                                                               “There are a lot of safety issues
we are ready to use it.                                                                                              with cadaver bone,” adds Barbara
It is similar to tissue,”                                                                                            Evans, Stacy’s second advisor who
                                                                                                                     works with Hugh in the Chemical Sci-
                                                                                                                     ences Division. “There might be some
                                                                                                                     disease or problem that the family was
                                                                                                                     not aware of and that can be really
                            Scanning electron microscope images of the bacterial cellulose and bacterial
                                                                                                                     dangerous for transplants.”
                            cellulose-bone mineral composites. The cellulose was infused with, from top left to         Stacy’s bone gel would solve the
                            lower right, zero, 53, 75 and 90 percent of the synthetic bone mineral respectively.     sanitary issues that complicate tissue
                            The petri dish at left has samples of bacterial cellulose with and without the           transplants because cellulose is a pure
                            synthetic bone minerals.                                                                 hypoallergenic material. Stacy steril-
                                                                                                                     izes the bone gel through autoclaving.
Stacy Hutchens says.                                    compound in the cellulose allows the mineral        Since the demand for human bone tissue is
   Stacy, a University of Tennessee gradu-              composite to maintain its structure.                hard to supply, Stacy’s synthetic material
ate student, began working with the bacteria               In the last two years, Stacy has analyzed        would ease a surgeon’s need to find bone
four years ago. When she heard of an initial            the material properties of her bone gel with        donors or subject patients to multiple opera-
experiment showing that Nata de Coco cel-               Dr. Roberto Benson in the Materials Science         tions.
lulose cubes soaked in calcium and phosphate            and Engineering Department at UTK, which               There is still a lot to learn, Stacy says. Only
solutions formed a white mineral, Stacy was             she says has really kick-started her research.      time and testing will tell whether the cellulose
eager to start a research project in which she             Using scanning electron microscopy and           produced by Gluconacetobacter will be as
would synthesize a bone replacement material            x-ray diffraction, Stacy found that the             sweet an addition to bone tissue engineering
using a similar method. Citing ORNL chemi-              hydroxyapatite structures in her material were      as it has been as to the dessert market.—Ash-
cal scientist Barbara Evans’ work as a starting         not that different from the hydroxyapatite in       ley Yeager
point, Stacy ran with the idea of infusing the          bone. Even the specific geometric symmetry
mineral found in bone into bacterial cellulose          found in real bone appeared in her calcium-            Ashley Yeager and Charlie Smith (page 3)
for her masters and now doctoral work.                  phosphate-cellulose composite—strong evi-           were this summer’s interns from the Univer-
   She first learned how to culture Gluconace-          dence that her synthetic bone mimics living         sity of Tennessee’s science writing program.
tobacter and its cellulose byproduct. Then the          bone tissue.
ORNL Reporter                                                                                                                                             5
How much do I need to retire?
Take time now to ensure that your retirement savings are enough
            By KATHRYN COGAR                                                                                              However, a little over 11
                                                     Estimated retirement cost
T    he question sounds simple and straight-
     forward. And in fact, the basics are
easier than you might think. Consider this:
                                                     $50,000 x 20 years =                            $1,000,000
                                                                                                                          percent do not contribute
                                                                                                                          enough and miss out on
                                                                                                                          the full company match.
What’s the most expensive purchase you’ll                                                                                 UT-Battelle is currently
ever make? It’s not your house or your kid’s         Estimated payments                                                   contributing $11 million
college education. It’s your retirement! How         Pension $14,000 x 20 years                      - 280,000            annually to employee
much will your retirement cost?                      Social Security $16,800 x 20 years                -336,000           accounts in matching con-
   An exercise in fifth grade math will give                                                                              tributions, but 367 of us
you a good ballpark estimate. Of course,                                                                                  are not taking full advan-
inflation and your level of investment earn-         Estimated additional need                       $ 384,000            tage of this free money.
ings ultimately need to be considered, but                                                                                   Assets and account bal-
for now, let’s keep things simple: If suddenly                                                                            ances follow a predictable
                                                      According to a recent study by the
tomorrow you were age 65 and it was your                                                              pattern based on our demographics, with the
                                                   Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)
last day of work and things cost the same as                                                          oldest age group holding the largest average
                                                   and the Investment Company Institute (ICI),
they do today, how much would you want to                                                             balance. But the balances themselves may
                                                   the average 401(k) account balance at year
spend each year? How close is that to what                                                            be of concern. Although our average balance
                                                   end 2005 was $102,000. The ORNL average
you spend today—is it the same, or more,                                                              is above the national trend, it is significantly
                                                   is around $160,000. Depending on which
or less? How many years do you think your                                                             below the amount needed in our example
                                                   number you use, in our example, there is a
retirement will last? If you’re going to live to                                                      above. When broken down by age groups,
                                                   gap of $282,000 or $224,000, substantial in
age 85, that would be 20 years. Now simply                                                            even those in the age 60 and older group have
                                                   either case.
multiply how much you’ll spend each year                                                              balances below the amount needed. Do you
                                                      Now the issues get a little more compli-
by the number of years and you have your                                                              have additional personal savings to fill the
                                                   cated. How much should you be contributing
personal retirement estimate.                                                                         gap or do you need to save more?
                                                   today to fill that gap and meet your goal?
   Let’s say you dream of a lifestyle of                                                                 Our investments also follow a trend toward
                                                   How should you be investing your contribu-
$50,000 a year, retiring at age 65 and expect-                                                        taking less risk as we get older. We invest
                                                   tions? The answers depend on how much
ing to live to age 85. You’ll need 20 years of                                                        very heavily in our most conservative, short
                                                   you’ve already saved and how much time
income x $50,000 = $1 million. That’s your                                                            term or Stable Value fund. We have 12 dif-
                                                   you have until you retire. Obviously, the
retirement price tag. Is it what you expected                                                         ferent funds in our plan, yet over one-fourth
                                                   longer your time horizon, the more time you
or are you in sticker shock? Just like with                                                           of us invest in only one fund, predominately
                                                   have to save and to let your contributions
buying a house, a car, a refrigerator or any                                                          the Stable Value fund. Will such a conser-
                                                   grow. You can take advantage of the com-
other consumer item, there are things you                                                             vative investment strategy earn the rate of
                                                   pounding effect where the money you invest
can do now to buy the future that you want.                                                           return you need to meet your retirement
                                                   earns interest which then earns more inter-
In fact, you probably have some of that cost                                                          goals?
                                                   est, and so on. By saving as soon as you can
already covered.                                                                                         As you can see, the answer to how much
                                                   and as much as you can, you are much more
   The first step is to understand how much                                                           you need for retirement is as unique as each
                                                   likely to reach your goal.
you already have toward meeting your retire-                                                          individual and his or her retirement dreams.
                                                      Conventional wisdom says that as you get
ment price tag and how much additional                                                                Yet the basic questions are the same for all
                                                   closer to retirement, your investments should
money you need to purchase your retirement                                                            of us: How much do you need? Have you
                                                   become more conservative. After all, you
dream. For most of us at ORNL, our retire-                                                            taken inflation and rising health care costs
                                                   don’t have as much time to recover from
ment income will come from four sources:                                                              into account? How much do you have? Are
                                                   any losses in the market. But, you may live
   • Pension                                                                                          you saving enough? Are you investing prop-
                                                   another 20 years in retirement. If you are
   • Social Security                                                                                  erly? Determining the answers is the first step
                                                   currently 10 years from retirement, that’s a
   • 401(k) Savings Plan                                                                              toward achieving your retirement dreams.
                                                   30-year time horizon. You need to think
   • Personal Savings
                                                   about what level of risk is right for you to
                                                   reach your goal and ensure that your income         Benefits fair Oct. 12
   To continue with our example, let’s cal-
                                                   after your career ends will last as long as you
culate a pension based on $50,000 earnings
and 20 years of service, using the regular
formula—that’s $14,000/yr or $280,000 over
                                                   live.
                                                                                                       O     RNL’s Benefits & Wellness Fair is set
                                                                                                             for Thursday, Oct. 12, from 10 a.m. to 3
                                                                                                       p.m., in the Main Street and Conference Cen-
20 years.
   Social Security comes to about $16,800/yr
                                                   S   o how are we doing? Are ORNL employ-
                                                        ees getting the maximum value from
                                                   the 401(k) to meet retirement goals? The
                                                                                                       ter areas with a theme of “Take Action! Live
                                                                                                       Well!” Exhibits will feature
or $336,000 over 20 years. (Refer to Your                                                              • Health Screenings & Education
                                                   latest report from CitiStreet, our 401(k)
2006 Benefits Report or “Silver Bullet” for
                                                   recordkeeper, is mixed. As of June 30, 2006,        • Benefits Providers
your own information or request a pension
                                                   participation is 89.4 percent, well above the       • Fitness & Nutrition
calculation from the OneCall Center, 574-
                                                   national average. Our average contribution
1500).                                                                                                 • University Programs
                                                   rate is 8.76 percent although our plan allows
   That’s a good start toward meeting your                                                             • Safety
                                                   for contributions as high as 60 percent (16
retirement goal, but you’ll need an additional
                                                   percent for highly compensated employees).          • Financial Planning
$384,000 from your 401(k) and/or personal
                                                      The company adds another 4 percent as a
savings (see the chart above).                                                                         • Work-life Balance
                                                   matching contribution to your first 6 percent.
6                                                                                                                                   September 2006
Vols vs. LSU                                                                                     Service
  highlight fall Club                                               Club                           Anniversaries
  ORNL           slate                                              ORNL                           September 2006

  O RNL retirees can now see upcoming Club ORNL
        events and information on the Web. Go to http://www.ornl.
  gov/adm/clubornl_signup.shtml and follow the instructions to create an
                                                                                                   35 years: Beverly V. Abele, Business &
                                                                                                   Information Services Dir.; Philip A. Jallouk,
  account. Once your account has been approved, you’ll be able to keep up with Club ORNL           Engineering Science & Technology; Ronald
  on-line. Nancy Gray (576-9479, graynl@ornl.gov) is the club’s point of contact for retirees.     Dain Poor, Research Reactors; Carl A. Burtis
  Lab employees can check out the club’s Website at home.ornl.gov/general/clubornl/.               Jr., Health Services
     September 23: Atlanta Day Trip. Registration is closed. For further details, contact
  Nancy Gray (graynl@ornl.gov or 576-9479).                                                        30 years: J. Edward (Eddie) Sutherland,
     October 21: Bike the Virginia Creeper Trail. Registration is closed. For further              Chemical Sciences; Barry B. Spencer,
  details, contact Dana Green (greendc@ornl.gov; 574-4322) or Ross Toedte (toedterj@ornl.          Charles S. Webster, and W. Scott Aaron,
  gov; 574-1912).                                                                                  Nuclear Science & Technology; George
     October 26: ORNL’s Fall Festival and Craft Show. This event will be held 11 a.m.-1            Farquharson, SNS Experimental Facilities;
  p.m. in and around the Conference Center with a special lunch offering for all who attend.       Ronald L. Graves and W. S. Key, Engineering
  Starting September 25, crafters may sign up online at https://www.ornl.gov/adm/clubornl/         Science & Technology; Julia Diana Malone,
  fall_festival_form.cfm to exhibit their items in the craft show (display only; no sales on day   Business & Information Services Dir.; Vic-
  of show). The number of exhibit spaces is limited, so sign up promptly if you are inter-         toria H. Rodgers, Craft Resources; Larry C.
  ested. For further details, contact Vickie McGinty (574-3564, mcgintyvc@ornl.gov). All           Combs, Fabrication; Catherine K. McKeown,
  retirees interested in attending the Fall Festival must register in advance by no later than     Life Sciences; Fred W. Meyer, Physics; Glenn
  Oct. 13 by contacting Nancy Gray (576-9479, graynl@ornl.gov).                                    O. Allgood, Computational Sciences & Engi-
     November 4: Vols vs. LSU. Club ORNL will have 500 football tickets to see the                 neering
  Volunteers play LSU, $50 per person, with a limit of two tickets per employee/retiree.
  From September 11-22, those interested in attending must sign up for the ticket lot-             25 years: Terry R. Sharp and Brian Damiano,
  tery at https://www.ornl.gov/adm/clubornl/vols_tickets_form.cfm. Any retirees without            Engineering Science & Technology; Davis
  XCAMS accounts who are interested in attending may contact Nancy Gray (576-9479 or               Allan Reed, Nuclear & Radiological Protec-
  graynl@ornl.gov.) to sign up. Once the sign-up period is over, there will be a random com-       tion; Linda L. Horton, Center for Nanophase
  puter drawing to select who gets the tickets from all those who have submitted their names.      Materials Sciences; David Lee Angel, Craft
  For further details, contact Bonnie Hebert (hebertb@ornl.gov).                                   Resources
     December 17: Clayton Christmas Concert. A 3 p.m. matinee performance of the
  Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Clayton Christmas Concert, plus special treats, is planned        20 years: Robert (Bob) L. Hettich, Chemical
  for ORNL employees and retirees. Tickets go on sale in November.                                 Sciences; Garfield W. Hedgecoth III, Craft
                                                                                                   Resources; Susan B. Lambert, Nuclear &
                                                                                                   Radiological Protection; David L. Wilson,
New Staff                                          Troy Allen Jensen, Research Reactors
                                                   Richard Michael Lusk, Computational Sci-
                                                                                                   Engineering Science & Technology; Stephen
                                                                                                   C. Rose, Fabrication
                                                     ences & Engineering
Members                                            Robyn Jeanette Rose, US ITER Project
                                                   Suresh Kumar Santhana-Vannan, Environ-
Douglas Allen Bunch, Kevin Boyd Hamby,               mental Sciences
  Jamie John Molaison, Ian Walter Evans,
  George Michael Herron, Wanda Elane
                                                   George Alexander Barclay, Research Reac-
                                                     tors
                                                                                                   Retirements
  Streets, Rocky Allen Armstrong, Candice          Victor Gene Hazlewood, Ofc. of Chief Infor-
  Elizabeth Halbert and Timothy Paul Rus-            mation Officer
  sell, SNS Experimental Facilities                Kathy A. Huczko, Quality Systems & Ser-                               Peggy Emmett has
Sydney Nail Murray III, Ekaterina Niko-              vices                                                            retired with 46 years of
  layevna Danilova and Jeffrey Darrel Bryan,       Michael Alan McGuire, Materials Science &                          service. She worked in the
  SNS Accelerator Systems                            Technology                                                       Nuclear S&T Division’s
Warren Chappelle Edwards and Shirley Hul-          Edoardo Aprà, Computer Science & Math-                             Criticality Safety group;
  ing McKamey, National Security                     ematics                                                          before that she was a
Timothy Wayne Guilliams, Brandon Dale              Beverly Gonzales, Engineering Sciences &                           member of the former
  Henderson, William Blake Housley,                  Technology                                                       Computational Engineer-
  Antoine Joubert Johnson, Chad Derek Loy,         Ava Yvonne Hamby, Business & Information                           ing and Physics Division.
  Debbie J. Robinson, Stephen Calvin Rose            Services                                      Emmett                During her career at
  Jr. and Stephanie Michelle Layden, Craft         Lisa Roberts, Nuclear Technology Programs                          ORNL she was a member
  Resources                                        Marion Donald Frederick, Feiyi Wang and                            of Dr. Alton Household-
Kathryn Parke Bugbee, Facilities Develop-            John Clay England III, Center for Compu-      er’s “mathematics panel,” where she did neu-
  ment                                               tational Sciences                             tron physics programming. Peggy, an award-
Marc E. Hampton, Nuclear Science & Tech-           Kevin Lee Shuford, Chemical Sciences            winning ballroom dancer, lives in Oak Ridge.
  nology                                           Sara Kathryn Hornbeck, Human Resources

ORNL Reporter                                                                                                                                 7
Dagotto                                            form into superconductors.
                                                      Elbio says, however, it is impossible to
                                                                                                   he says.
                                                                                                      “Science was very natural for me, and I was
                        Continued from page 1      study all the atoms in a particular material    interested in nature from a young age.”
                                                   and develop a macroscopic theory of why            While he was in school, scientists were
their materials science research. Every few
                                                   that material acts as a superconductor.         making major developments in quantum
months Elbio will head to Washington, D.C.,
                                                      “You can never simulate an entire material.  mechanics and astrophysics, fields entertain-
to exchange ideas and information about
                                                   You must break it down to a few hundreds of     ing the most challenging questions about
materials research with other solid-state sci-
                                                   atoms and hope you still have the properties    nature, he says, which enticed Elbio to study
entists, politicians and federal agency repre-
                                                   of the materials.”                              physics, specifically high-energy physics.
sentatives.
                                                      Working at that small scale pushes Elbio’s      After getting his doctoral degree at the
   Elbio’s home base, at least half his time,
                                                   studies into the realm of nanoscience. The      Balseiro Institute in Argentina, the South
is here at the Lab, though, and he has asked
                                                   physicist’s ability to develop a theory and     American equivalent of MIT, Elbio moved to
for an office that sits at the corner of the SNS
                                                   simulation of the particle interactions at that the University of Illinois to complete his post-
and Nanophase Center. Putting himself at
                                                   level can help nanospecialists overcome         doctoral work. It was not until he accepted
that juncture, the physicist will be able to
                                                   the challenge in establishing how materials     an associate research position at the Institute
mesh the data that scientists in each facil-
                                                   should behave.                                  for Theoretical Physics in California that the
ity produce and develop his theories about
                                                      Scientists can-
nanointeractions.
                                                   not use Newtonian        “You cannot sit down and invest a certain amount
    “You cannot sit down and invest a certain
                                                   physics when ana-
amount of hours and then magically make a
theory,” he says. “Sometimes I will sit in my
                                                   lyzing a few hun-        of hours and then magically make a theory.”
                                                   dred atoms, how-
office and just think; put things together in
                                                   ever. Elbio says
my mind.”
                                                   they must use quantum mechanics, where          physicists flipped, in his words, to condensed-
   Often things do not work, the condensed-
                                                   electrons—infinitely small points, in Elbio’s   matter physics. That was about the time that
matter physicist says, but every now and then
                                                   words—act like waves, not particles. Nano-      high-temperature superconducting burst onto
he gets a few sparks that lead to a good idea
                                                   scientists want to understand how that wave     the scientific scene.
of how a given phenomenon works. Having
                                                   motion affects the material and how it acts.       “Materials science influenced the whole
those sparks leads to the next challenge: “You
                                                      “If we can understand how something like     world. It was more down to Earth,” he says.
must prove it,” he says.
                                                   a high-temperature superconductor works on      “Condensed matter can be exotic, but you are
   Working with experimentalists, Elbio can
                                                   the small-scale level, it can lead to applica-  working with real materials that you can study
gain an idea of what the tests are showing to
                                                   tions where we can raise the temperature        in the lab.”
happen as electrons move or do not move in
                                                   to room temperature,” Elbio says. “So you          Jointly appointed at Oak Ridge and the
a particular material. That gives him a bet-
                                                   could have wires that transmit current but      University of Tennessee, Elbio has access to
ter idea of how to explain those movements
                                                   don’t heat up.”                                 many labs and scientists to satisfy his intellec-
and their relationship to the materials’ char-
                                                      That is the big picture. Mainly the fun-     tual curiosity, as he attempts to understand the
acteristics. Transition metal oxides are one
                                                   damentals intrigue Elbio. He also wants to      nature of materials. And, of course, he has his
example. Elbio wants to know why, at room
                                                   know why these natural phenomena happen,        espresso makers too.—Ashley Yeager
temperature, these compounds often resemble
                                                   a curiosity he has had since he was a child,
ceramic bricks, but when cooled, they trans-

        P.O. Box 2008
                                                                            PRSRT STD
                                                                            U.S. Postage
                                                                                                       INSIDE . . .
                                                                               PAID
        Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6266                                            Permit # 37
                                                                                                      No. 81              September 2006
                                                                             Powell, TN

                                                                                                      Elbio Dagotto, page 1
                                                                                                      Capital experience, page 1
                                                                                                      Lab Notes: Visualizing the
                                                                                                      grid, plant pathogens, sensor
                                                                                                      communication, teachers,
                                                                                                      page 3

                                                                                                      Interns and mentors, page 4
                                                                                                      Bone gel, page 5
                                                                                                      Saving for retirement, page 6
                                                                                                      Club ORNL slate, page 7
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