Partnership between PNNL and ONAMI

By Linda Barney, Barney and Associates

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a Dept. of Energy (DOE) Office of Science facility operated by Battelle. The Laboratory campus is located in Richland, Washington and is home to about 4,000 staff. PNNL is one of the partnering institutions in ONAMI and has established an Oregon lab – housed in the ONAMI facility in Corvallis, Oregon­ – to facilitate research collaboration with the other ONAMI partners and has assigned Dennis Stiles to represent PNNL as one of the ONAMI research co-directors. Mr. Stiles has a history of leading complex federal research programs, particularly government-industry partnerships, and seeks to assist all ONAMI partners in the area of federal research business development. “ONAMI provides a significant opportunity for the federal laboratory and the three Oregon research universities to partner to conduct the best possible science in the exciting fields of nanoscience and microtechnology,” Stiles said, “while also working with Oregon industry to quickly translate this research to new products and services.”

In addition to seeking new research projects in Oregon, PNNL also offers access to significant research assets back at the home campus in Richland. The William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory is one of the newest DOE national user facilities, dedicated to the mission of providing integrated experimental and computational resources for discovery and technological innovation in the molecular sciences in support of the needs of the DOE and the nation. To support this mission, the EMSL has selected scientific themes that focus on research areas in biogeochemistry and subsurface science, interfacial chemistry and catalysis, structure/dynamics of biomolecules and biomolecular complexes, biochemical pathways and aerosol chemistry. The EMSL offers – at one location – a comprehensive array of cutting-edge resources and equipment, such as high-field magnetic resonance resources, mass spectrometers and high-performance computers. To meet their specific needs, users may employ any combination of equipment and capabilities from the six facilities housed within EMSL.

Because the EMSL was originally envisioned as a facility to study things at the molecular scale, most of the labs within the facility are well-suited for nano-science, but the EMSL does contain a separate Interfacial and Nanotech Science facility specifically designed to meet the needs of researchers working in nanotechnology. Resident and visiting EMSL users at the Interfacial and Nanoscale Science Facility research a variety of oxide mineral films and interfaces, nanoscale materials, electronic and catalysis materials, microfabrication and microanalytical separations, and sensing. State-of-the-art equipment such as high-resolution electron microscopes, x-ray diffraction instrumentation, scanning probes, and clean-room capabilities are available.

Since its inception in 1997, the 200,000-square-foot EMSL facility has played host to more than 7,500 visiting scientists, professors and industry users. The EMSL is available to academic and commercial users from around the US and the world, through an application process; user access to EMSL requires submission of a proposal for peer review (select the following link for information on the process and requirements: http://eus.emsl.pnl.gov/EUS.). Stiles indicated that for those approved projects in which the researcher intends to publish the results, the use of the lab is free to the user, while projects in which the results are kept proprietary must cover the cost of instrument and personnel time. Stiles encourages academic or commercial researchers from Oregon to apply to use the EMSL facility.

About the author
Linda Barney is the founder and owner of Barney and Associates, a technical and marketing writing firm. Founded in 1990, Barney and Associates specializes in technical writing, documentation, online help, web content and training. Barney and Associates also provides a wide range of marketing writing services including creating media articles, white papers, data sheets, solution briefs, case studies and reviewer’s guides. Contact Linda at linda@barneyassoc.com.