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The National Center for Computational Sciences, located at the Department of Energy’s 91����, made a strong showing at computing conferences this fall. Staff from across the center participated in numerous workshops and invited speaking engagements.

Since their establishment in 2020, the five DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Centers have been expanding the frontier of what’s possible in quantum computing, communication, sensing and materials in ways that will advance basic science for energy, security, communication and logistics.

ORNL welcomed attendees to the inaugural Southeastern Quantum Conference, held Oct. 28 – 30 in downtown Knoxville, to discuss innovative ways to use quantum science and technologies to enable scientific discovery. 

The Department of Energy’s Quantum Computing User Program, or QCUP, is releasing a Request for Information to gather input from all relevant parties on the current and upcoming availability of quantum computing resources, conventions for measuring, tracking, and forecasting quantum computing performance, and methods for engaging with the diversity of stakeholders in the quantum computing community. Responses received to the RFI will inform QCUP on both immediate and near-term availability of hardware, software tools and user engagement opportunities in the field of quantum computing.

The Proton Power Upgrade project at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source has achieved its final key performance parameter of 1,250 hours of neutron production at 1.7 megawatts of proton beam power on a newly developed target. 

Researchers used the Summit supercomputer at ORNL to answer one of fission’s big questions: What exactly happens during the nucleus’s “neck rupture” as it splits in two? Scission neutrons have been theorized to be among those particles emitted during neck rupture, although their exact characteristics have been debated due to a lack of conclusive experimental evidence of their existence.

Two papers led by researchers from ORNL received “Editor’s Choice” awards from the journal Future Generation Computer Systems. Both papers explored the possibilities of integrating quantum computing with high performance computing.

Biochemist David Baker — just announced as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry — turned to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at 91���� for information he couldn’t get anywhere else. HFIR is the strongest reactor-based neutron source in the United States.  

91���� has launched its Neutron Nexus pilot program with Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and Florida State University through the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. The first program of its kind nationwide, it’s aimed at broadening and diversifying the scientific user community with outreach to universities and colleges. 

Scientists at ORNL used neutrons to end a decades-long debate about an enzyme cancer uses.