Long at the vanguard of international efforts to answer questions like these, ORNL’s contributions remain strong today. David Radford, head of the lab’s Fundamental Nuclear and Particle Physics section, is an internationally renowned expert in the field who has had an indelible impact on the development of germanium detectors. Vital experimentation tools at the forefront of fundamental physics research, germanium detectors are large, single crystals of germanium — a metallic element — used to detect radiation and enable incredibly precise energy measurements.

Michigan State University chemist Weiwei Xie knows a thing or two about working under pressure. Leveraging extreme forces similar to those found deep within our planet, her lab is pioneering the discovery of novel quantum materials with exciting electronic and magnetic properties.