Nishanth joins the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a Distinguished Staff Fellow.

Nishanth has joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as an Alvin M. Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellow in the Energy Science and Technology Directorate.

About the DSF program: Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Distinguished Staff Fellowship program is a highly competitive, prestigious early-career research opportunity. ORNL awards fellowships named for three renowned scientists who made significant contributions to their scientific field and held leadership positions at the laboratory: Liane B. Russell, Alvin M. Weinberg, and Eugene P. Wigner. The DSF program offers outstanding early career scientists and engineers a unique and prestigious entry to a career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Of more than 7,000 staff, just a select few are DSFs. Fellows are encouraged to explore new lines of scientific discovery while also pursuing their proposed work and participating in ongoing Laboratory projects. Along the way, they make a big impact, often developing new lab capabilities and programs. The fellowship offers 3 years of guaranteed funding with assistance from divisions to identify funding and research opportunities to position the fellows for successful roll-off. Divisions seeking to hire a DSF develop mentoring and integration plans that facilitate the Fellow’s successful integration into ORNL’s scientific mission and alignment of their research activities with US Department of Energy (DOE) missions. Hands-on mentorship by a team of senior research staff ensures DSFs build robust networks and are well-acquainted with ORNL’s wide-ranging resources and facilities. The DSFs are included in a specialized early career professional development program that grows their knowledge of Laboratory and DOE funding mechanisms for career success and of our research directorates and leadership to facilitate cross-disciplinary work.

Alvin M. Weinberg: Dr. Alvin M. Weinberg, ORNL’s longest serving director (1955–1973), was a passionate advocate for nuclear energy with a strong interest in science policy. Weinberg Fellows generally align with the applied, experimental, and computational sciences and demonstrate competency in chemistry and chemical engineering, radiochemistry, materials science and engineering, nuclear science and engineering, and manufacturing science and engineering.