Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason went to Washington, D.C. earlier this week, along with other top lab officials, to be briefed on the contractor’s evaluation from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The report card for FY 2015 was outstanding, and Mason cited some highlights in a Thursday message to employees.
Here’s the text of Mason’s message:
DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE: 2015 Lab Performance
Thomas Zacharia, Jeff Smith, and I joined officials from Battelle and the University of Tennessee at DOE headquarters this week to receive ORNL’s performance appraisal. The grades assigned for our eight major performance goals were one A, six A-minuses, and one B-plus, giving us an overall grade of 94. The evaluation was outstanding and highlighted a diverse set of achievements, both in science and technology and in management and operation of the Laboratory.
So thank you for a remarkable 2015. The grades are a direct reflection of the quality of your work to accomplish our mission of scientific discovery for clean energy and national security.
I’ve been ticking off a list of 2015 highlights for a few months now: President Obama and Vice President Biden launched the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation and highlighted the 3D-printed replica Shelby Cobra; we began preparations for Summit, the Lab’s next supercomputer; ORNL staff provided essential support to Secretary Moniz in the Iran nuclear talks; we won five-year extensions for the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors and the UT-Battelle management and operating contract; the Spallation Neutron Source set records for power and target longevity; we made several deliveries of major components to the international ITER project; we launched SPRUCE, a large-scale ecological research facility; and we hosted EERE Industry Day, featuring the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy project.
The DOE performance appraisal recognizes that type of high-profile work, but it describes much, much more. It makes clear that our achievements are built on a solid foundation of scientific, technical, and operational expertise that has been developed over many years. It also credits ORNL not only for developing the next generation of researchers through the UT-ORNL Bredesen Center, but also for strengthening our safety culture through the Laboratory Operations Supervisor Academy.
Among strengths highlighted in DOE’s evaluation were ORNL’s technical leadership, scientific productivity, frequent publication in high-impact journals by several research groups, and leadership of ORNL staff in their fields.
In his letter communicating our appraisal results, ORNL Site Office Manager Johnny Moore summarized achievements across our R&D portfolio as follows:
“UT-Battelle played a leadership role for Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), providing essential expertise for exascale project planning and management that continues to set the standard for leadership facilities,” he wrote.
“UT-Battelle research for Basic Energy Sciences (BES) is recognized as world leading in materials theory, synthesis, neutron scattering, and microscopy. UT-Battelle demonstrated strong productivity and alignment with Biological and Environmental Research program priorities, often at the high impact interface between fundamental and applied research,” he continued.
“UT-Battelle research made important contributions to fusion materials science, particularly material responses to neutron irradiation, silicon carbide fabrication and characterization, and high heat flux testing of plasma facing materials. UT-Battelle provided scientific, technical, and management leadership roles in high priority neutron physics experiments. UT-Battelle continued to leverage unique facilities and expertise to produce and distribute isotopes in short supply and develop new critical isotope capabilities.” DOE also praised the successful transition of the low energy physics group from its focus on HRIBF to “a strong user group with activities at all major national and international facilities.”
We achieved every notable outcome assigned by DOE in fiscal year 2015, delivering the products, plans, and achievements most important to our sponsors and continuing to attract users to our world-leading research facilities. The achievements spanned a portfolio broader than any other DOE lab.
Finally, the appraisal reminds us that it’s essential to DOE that we conduct our work safely and effectively. DOE lauded our efforts to improve our safety culture and our goal of having supervisors more frequently in the field. It credited us, too, with management systems that ensure cybersecurity, sound business practices, and healthy community engagement.
Thanks again for a great 2015. We’ll be building on that success in 2016, and I’m looking forward to what the new year has in store.
Thom
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