Vladimir A. Protopopescu (top left) and Young Soo Kwon received Director's Awards at UT-Battelle's 2014 Awards Night. Outstanding Team Accomplishment winners were, from left, back row, John Rowe, Charles Carnal, Lonnie Love, Craig Blue, Randall Lind and Peter Lloyd. Front row, Vlastimil Kunc, Alan Liby, Jennifer Palmer, Chad Duty and Brian Post. (hi-res image)

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 7, 2014 – Vladimir A. Protopopescu of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Computational Sciences and Engineering Division has earned the ORNL Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology.

ORNL Director Thom Mason presented the award to Protopopescu on Friday, Nov. 7 during the annual Awards Night event hosted by UT-Battelle, the management and operating contractor of ORNL.

Protopopescu was recognized for outstanding mentorship of early-career staff during his 30-year career at ORNL, including professional development, intellectual leadership, critical thinking, skills training and continuous inspiration and encouragement. His efforts have resulted in highly productive scientists and engineers who continue to have an impact on science and technology at ORNL and other high-profile R&D institutions. Protopopescu also earned the Mentor of Early-Career Researchers Award.

Young Soo Kwon of ORNL’s Research Reactors Division earned the Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Mission Support. He was honored for sustained, distinguished performance as the Systems Engineering Group Leader. His team has helped ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) attain a high level of operations performance reliability that was recognized with an award in 2013 from the American Nuclear Society. Kwon also earned the Mission Support Leadership – Group Level Award.

An 11-member team composed of representatives from ORNL’s Energy and Environmental Sciences and Physical Sciences directorates earned the Director’s Award for Outstanding Team Accomplishment. The team was recognized for development of a big area additive manufacturing technology that can produce components 10 times larger, 100 times cheaper and 100 times faster than current systems. The technology has resulted in almost 20 invention disclosures, multiple cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) and Work for Others projects and is being commercialized this year by CINCINNATI, Inc. Members of the team, which also earned the Technology Transfer Award, are Lonnie Love, Craig Blue, Chad Duty, Vlastimil Kunc, Randall Lind, Peter Lloyd, Brian Post, Charles Carnal, Jennifer Palmer, John Rowe and Alan Liby. Love also earned a Distinguished Researcher Award.

Awards Night winners are selected by committees and approved by the Laboratory director. Nominations are made by division, program or directorate managers. The Director’s awards are selected by the Laboratory director with input from the deputy directors for science and technology and operations.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.