Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

UT-Battelle, which manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy, celebrated exceptional achievements in science, operations, and community engagement during its annual Awards Night recently in Lenoir City.

The annual event highlights individuals and teams at Oak Ridge National Laboratory whose work advances the nation’s scientific and technological leadership, exemplifies operational excellence, and reflects UT-Battelle’s commitment to the community. The ceremony concludes with presentation of the Director’s Awards, selected by the Laboratory Director from among the evening’s 24 award recipients.

“This year’s Director’s Award recipients represent the very best of ORNL,” ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said. “Each awardee exemplifies a dedication to the lab’s important mission and a commitment to our core value of impact. Their achievements are accelerating scientific innovation, strengthening national security and enhancing operational excellence.”

1. Brenden Ortiz, a Wigner Distinguished Staff Fellow in ORNL’s Physical Sciences Directorate, received the “Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science & Technology” for pioneering discoveries in kagome metals that revealed new insights into charge density waves and magnetism.
2. The Polyglot Detection Team received the “Director’s Award for Outstanding Team Accomplishment” for developing Polyvore, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based suite of tools that detect and disarm polyglot files — a particularly malicious form of malware capable of masquerading as multiple file types and evading even the most advanced machine learning-based detection tools. Team members are Timothy Oesch, Luke Koch, Amul Chaulagain, Brian Weber, Matthew Dixson, and Michael Huettel of the lab’s National Security Sciences Directorate.
3. The “Director’s Award for Outstanding Team Accomplishment” recognized the ORNL ERP S/4HANA Upgrade team for completing a two-year, cross-directorate effort to modernize the laboratory’s enterprise business systems. The on-time, under-budget transition to the SAP S/4HANA platform involved 178 staff and improved critical functions such as finance, procurement and human resources, positioning ORNL for long-term agility, performance and innovation in support of the DOE mission. Team members include Tracey Lawson, Justin Ferrell, and Janet Maddern of the Business Services Directorate; Kimberly Smithson, Hannah Greise, William Matthews, Bryan McDaniel, Dionne Harper, Justin Rogers, and Megan Bradley of the Information Technology Services Directorate; Janie Phillips of the Human Resources Directorate; and  of the Isotope Science and Enrichment Directorate.

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