1965

Illuminating mRNA

In 1956, ORNL biologists Elliot "Ken" Volkin and Lazarus Astrachan observed the role that RNA plays when a virus infects a bacterium. Five years later, French scientists François Jacob and Jacques Monod further illuminated the function of mRNA, for which they received the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.

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1986

Pioneering chemical dynamics

ORNL scientists pioneered the field of chemical dynamics, laying the foundation for research that received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986.

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2019

Ties to chemistry Nobel

Two of the researchers who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry — John B. Goodenough of the University of Texas at Austin and M. Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University in New York — have research ties to ORNL.

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2021

Supercomputing support

Benjamin List, whose research was supported by modeling and simulation efforts on supercomputers at ORNL, shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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2024

High Flux Isotope Reactor a fit for Nobel laureate’s designer proteins

Biochemist David Baker turned to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for information he couldn’t get anywhere else. HFIR is the strongest reactor-based neutron source in the United States.

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