For nearly 80 years, Argonne National Laboratory has advanced scientific discovery that fuels groundbreaking innovation across numerous domains.
Harnessing expertise, state-of-the-art facilities, and strategic partnerships, our scientists and engineers help secure the nation’s safe and prosperous future.
Our pioneering research and development supports energy abundance, affordability, and reliability and positions the U.S. as a science and technology leader.
At the heart of Argonne’s mission lies fundamental science—it is the engine that drives future innovation and energy abundance.
In quantum information science, our work is helping to unlock the potential of quantum systems to revolutionize communications, computing, and sensing. A new Argonne-developed material—a lightresponsive perovskite crystal that detects subtle magnetic signals— embodies these possibilities, paving the way for ultra-precise sensors and faster, more efficient electronics.
Argonne’s work in microelectronics advances the cutting edge of materials science, creating denser, more energy-efficient, and more powerful next-generation technologies. One approach applies the natural randomness of magnetic materials to computing system design, offering low-power alternatives to traditional architectures and cutting the energy demands of advanced AI and other decision-making tasks.
Through AI, we enhance our ability to analyze complex datasets and optimize experimental designs, accelerating discovery and progress in a range of fields. Innovations like privacy-preserving algorithms and distributed training software illustrate Argonne’s impact, allowing large-scale AI models to learn from multi-institutional datasets without centralizing sensitive data.
Driving
Energy
Progress
Our breakthroughs in critical materials sourcing and recycling bolster U.S. supply chains, ensuring essential resources are available for energy systems. Argonne has developed a mechanical method to separate used batteries and recover valuable materials with minimal processing, offering a cost-effective alternative to conventional heat- and chemical-based recycling and reducing reliance on foreign sources.
We develop next-generation battery chemistries and grid solutions to enhance resilience and reliability. A new battery additive created by Argonne scientists makes lithium-sulfur batteries last longer, store more energy, and cost less—key advancements toward integrating them into in everyday technology.
Our manufacturing innovations reduce energy consumption and optimize production processes, supporting a dynamic and competitive industrial sector. One such innovation—a patented process to produce a cotton growth regulator at industrial scale—helped a manufacturer shift from small-batch production to affordable and continuous large-scale operations.
Advanced nuclear energy researchers aim to develop safe, efficient, and reliable reactors that meet the highest security and nonproliferation standards. At Argonne’s Natural Convection Shutdown Heat Removal Test Facility, we are developing and testing passive cooling systems that function without power or human intervention— critical features for next-generation reactor safety.
Enabling Innovation with Cutting-Edge Facilities
Argonne’s scientific resources, among the world’s most advanced, welcome thousands of researchers annually.
With exceptional capabilities that support experimental, theoretical, and computational research and accelerate discoveries across multiple disciplines, they include six national scientific user facilities.
Resources available at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility include Aurora, one of the world’s first exascale supercomputers. Capable of performing over a quintillion calculations per second, Aurora is revolutionizing AI-assisted and data-intensive research.
The Advanced Photon Source (APS) is one of the world’s most powerful X-ray light sources, helping scientists explore the structure and behavior of materials at the atomic level and enabling breakthroughs in energy, advanced technologies, and medicine. A recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry used Argonne’s supercomputers and powerful X-ray beams at the APS to design and validate new proteins, advancing drug discovery and our understanding of diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Quantum materials, nanotechnology, and advanced manufacturing help anchor the mission of the Center for Nanoscale Materials. Center researchers recently demonstrated a method to control the collective magnetic properties of atoms in real time—a discovery that could aid in developing future quantum computers.
The Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System advances nuclear physics research and isotope production. Scientists recently automated beam tuning at nuCARIBU, a rare radioactive ion source, matching expert-level precision with machine learning. This innovation has improved reliability, reduced delays, and is expanding access to high-quality beams.
Capturing detailed images of how atomic structures and defects form and change in real time during irradiation, the Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope supports the design of next-generation nuclear reactors. Among the materials tested are advanced alloys that better withstand embrittlement and alternative nuclear fuels, both aimed at extending reactor lifespans and enhancing safety.
Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) is a multi-laboratory, multi-location user facility that provides high-quality data that enriches our understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere and related processes. Argonne manages two observatories: Southern Great Plains (SGP) and ARM Mobile Facility 3 (Bankhead National Forest).
Collaboration is a cornerstone of the Argonne strategy to drive innovation and national progress.
Our industry engagement includes collaborations with hundreds of U.S. companies to advance manufacturing, transportation, energy, and computing solutions. Organizations of all sizes—from start-ups shaping new markets to corporations transforming industries—tap into Argonne's combination of expertise, facilities and tools to solve challenges and seize opportunities.
Early-stage companies get help commercializing breakthroughs through the Chain Reaction Innovations program. Technical and financial support, along with business mentorship, has helped 44 innovators of technologies from fuel injectors to quantum dots raise more than $660M in follow-on funding since the program began in 2016.
As leaders of major research initiatives such as the national quantum research center Q-NEXT, we convene experts to advance technologies critical to national competitiveness.
| $1.2B | spending |
| $1B | value add |
| 3,800 | total employees |
| 770 | graduate and undergrad students |
| 1,500 | scientists and engineers |
| 400 | postdoctoral scholars |
| 1,900 | visiting scientists |
| 450 | joint faculty |
| 8,000 | facility users |
| 1,500 | campus acres |
| 6 | national scientific user facilities |
| 100s | of research partners across academia, industry and government |
| $660M | follow-on funding raised by CRI-supported startups |
| 700 | jobs created |
| 6,200 | elementary, middle, and high school students |
| 21,000 | students and family members through STEM fests and other outreach programs |
| 60 | patents secured per year |
| 150 | R&D 100 awards all time |
| 3 | Nobel Prizes to Argonne staff all time |
Argonne’s world-class facilities, tools, and expertise have long supported Nobel Prize-winning science by enabling researchers to explore, validate, and accelerate groundbreaking discoveries.
Most recently, Argonne played a critical role in the work that led to the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for revolutionizing protein structure prediction and design. Baker’s lab created entirely new proteins with targeted functions—advances made possible through Argonne’s resources. Baker used the Advanced Photon Source (APS) to confirm protein structures at atomic resolution and relied on the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to simulate folding processes and train AI models.
Argonne’s facilities also contributed to other Nobel-recognized breakthroughs: the APS enabled structural biology research foundational to the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studies of the ribosome; the APS was pivotal to work that earned the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with a focus on human G-protein-coupled receptors. Argonne also played a role in the ATLAS experiment at CERN, which won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the Higgs boson.
Argonne scientists have been individually honored as well—Alexei Abrikosov (2003 Physics), Maria Goeppert Mayer (1963 Physics), and Enrico Fermi (1938 Physics) all conducted key work at or with the lab.
Two Argonne facilities have been critical to Nobel-winning work in 2024, 2012 and 2009.
2024, 2012, and 2009 Chemistry
2024 Chemistry
Three distinguished scientists have been honored for the key work they conducted at or with Argonne.
1938 Physics
1963 Physics
2003 Physics
As Argonne continues to push science and technology frontiers, we remain committed to discovery and innovation that tangibly improve the world.
Our multidisciplinary teams, world-class facilities, and collaborative approach help address today’s challenges and unlock tomorrow’s possibilities.
