Argonne scientists receive distinguished performance awards

ARGONNE, Ill. (June 22, 2004) — Five scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have received the 2004 Distinguished Performance Award from the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne, which recognizes outstanding scientific or technical achievements or a distinguished record of achievements.

The University of Chicago operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy. The awards were presented at a recent ceremony held at Argonne . Award winners are:

Lawrence Harding of the laboratory's Chemistry Division has been a major force in the application of quantum chemistry methods to the accurate calculation of potential energy surfaces. Given the potential energy surfaces, various dynamics methods determine cross sections, reaction rates and thermochemistry. When Harding started his career, calculation of potential energy surfaces was limited to the simplest reactions. His research has led to calculations that challenge the best measurements for a wide array of reactions.

Romesh Kumar of the lab's Chemical Engineering Division has conducted outstanding research and development work on advanced materials for fuel cells and fuel reformers, leading to major impacts in the scientific field and in commercial applications. He is a leader in research and development for both solid oxide and polymer electrolyte fuel cells, and a world-class expert on fuel processing for fuel cells. He has developed systems analysis codes for analyzing fuel-cell system performance, efficiency and cost that have been adopted by the Department of Energy and others as the standard for simulation fuel cell performance.

James Proudfoot of the lab's High Energy Physics Division plays a leading role in the ongoing Collider Detector collaboration for Fermilab's Tevatron Collider. During Run 1 of the Tevatron Collider and the Collider Detector, he was instrumental in extracting results in the area of electroweak interactions and properties. He contributed to the development of trigger algorithms and the determination of the properties of the W bosons.

He has played a strong role in the Collider Detector upgrade and recently finished a term as the deputy head of the Collider Detector Operations Department. He is a key figure at Argonne and in the United States program for work in the tile calorimeter for the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider .

Work by Wolfgang Sturhahn and Thomas S. Toellner of the lab's Experimental Facilities Division on the development of a high-energy-resolution monochromator and its application to the development of nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering has earned them a worldwide reputation.

Sturhahn and Toellner were the first scientists to discover and extract the phonon density of states from nuclear resonant scattering data. Their further technical developments permitted them to improve the resolution to the record level of under one million electron volts. Their papers on these topics are among the most frequently quoted in this field. Sturhahn and Toellner's ideas and technical innovations were crucial to initiate the development of nuclear resonant techniques at the Advanced Photon Source and other third-generation synchrotron radiation sources. They also pioneered creative instrumentation developments and a wide range of applications of the new technique.

The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy 's Office of Science .

For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.