Newswise — OAK RIDGE, Tenn., July 19, 2017 -- Researchers Baohua Gu and Parans Paranthaman have been named Corporate Fellows of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ORNL’s Corporate Fellows are recognized for significant career accomplishments and continued leadership in their scientific fields.

 

“Baohua and Parans’ accomplishments epitomize the definition of ORNL’s Corporate Fellows,” ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia said. “Baohua has made significant contributions in advancing the environmental geochemistry community’s understanding of subsurface systems. Parans has pioneered advances in the field of materials chemistry with impacts on energy technologies such as superconductors, batteries and solar cells. They have both also been outstanding mentors and role models for students and early career staff members.”

 

Gu is an international expert in environmental geochemistry most noted for his innovative approach to studying organo-metal interactions and applying spectroscopic techniques to characterizing the fate, transformation and transport of heavy metals, radionuclides and nanomaterials in aquatic and terrestrial systems. He came to ORNL after receiving his doctorate in geochemistry from the University of California-Berkeley.

 

Currently team lead for Molecular Scale and Biogeochemical Processes in the Environmental Sciences Division, Gu is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological Society of America. He has published more than 220 journal articles with over 9000 citations and has six patents. Gu has also served as the regional editor (Asia) for Environmental Engineering Science. He holds a joint appointment as professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

 

Paranthaman, who came to ORNL in 1993 after receiving his doctorate in chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras) and post-doctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin and University of Colorado, Boulder, has gained international recognition for the design, synthesis and fabrication of new materials and their translation into new energy technologies, including superconductor wires, electrodes for batteries and additive manufacturing of low-cost magnets. He is a fellow of the Materials Research Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Ceramic Society, ASM International and the Institute of Physics, London.

 

Currently group leader for Materials Chemistry in the Chemical Sciences Division, Paranthaman has published more than 380 journal articles with over 14,600 citations and has co-edited six books. He has 35 patents and more than 20 have been licensed and commercialized. He currently serves as the associate editor of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and has served on the advisory boards of numerous other journals. He has a joint faculty appointment with the University of Tennessee Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education.

 

With the addition of Gu and Paranthaman, there are now 27 Corporate Fellows at ORNL.

 

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the DOE's Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov/.

 

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Image 1: https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/Gu200.jpeg

 

Caption 1: Baohua Gu

 

Image 2: https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/Parans200.jpeg

 

Caption 2: Parans Paranthaman