ORNL’s mission is to conduct basic and applied research that provides innovative solutions to complex problems.
A History of Great Science
    Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the Department of Energy’s largest science and energy laboratory. anaged since April 2000 by a partnership of the University of Tennessee and Battelle, ORNL was established in 1943 as a part of the secret Manhattan Project to pioneer a method for producing and separating plutonium.
    During the 1950s and 1960s, ORNL was an international center for the study of nuclear energy and related research in the physical and life sciences. The creation of the Department of Energy in the 1970s led to an expansion of ORNL’s research program into areas of energy production, transmission, and conservation. By the turn of the century the laboratory supported the nation with a peacetime science and technology mission that was just as important, but very different from, the days of the Manhattan Project.
Laboratory Director
    Jeffrey Wadsworth, ORNL’s director since August 2003, is an internationally recognized metallurgist. He was previously a senior executive at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, where he focused on Department of Energy science programs, technology transfer, and homeland security. Before joining Battelle in  August 2002, Dr. Wadsworth served as deputy director for science and technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. From 1980 to 1992, he worked for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company at the Palo Alto Research Laboratory. He holds B.S., Ph.D., and D.Met. degrees in metallurgy and an honorary D.Eng. from Sheffield University in England. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2005 he was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
The Lab at a Glance
    ORNL has a staff of more than 4,000 and annually hosts approximately 3,000 guest researchers who spend two weeks or longer in Oak Ridge. ORNL funding for FY 2005 exceeds $1 billion. UT-Battelle has provided more than $6 million in support of math and science education, economic development and other projects in the greater Oak Ridge region.
Supporting the Department of Energy’s Missions
    ORNL is an international leader in a range of scientific areas that support the Department of Energy’s mission.
The laboratory’s six major mission roles include neutron science, energy, high-performance computing, systems biology, materials science at the nanoscale, and national security.
A Campus for the Next Generation of Research
    ORNL is in the final stages of a $300 million project to provide a modern campus for the next generation of
great science. A unique combination of federal, state and private funds is building 13 new facilities. Included
in these new facilities will be the Laboratory for Comparative and Functional Genomics, the Center for
Nanophase Materials Sciences, the Advanced Microscopy Laboratory, and the joint institutes for
computational sciences, biological sciences, and neutron sciences. ORNL has been selected as the site of the
Office of Science’s National Leadership Computing Facility for unclassified high-performance computing.
World’s Largest Facility for Materials Research
    On budget and on schedule for completion in 2006, the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source will make Oak
Ridge the world’s foremost center for neutron science research.
Point of Contact:
Billy Stair, Director, Communications and External Relations
Phone: 865-574-4160 • E-mail: stairb@ornl.gov