The Bridge - Issue 1, 2021 - 5

Editors-in-Chief

Guest Editors

THE BRIDGE, February 2021
Letter from the Editors-in-Chief
Dear IEEE-HKN Members and Friends,

Dr. Sahra Sedigh
Sarvestani
Beta Chapter

This issue of THE BRIDGE magazine has content provided by Oak Ridge
National Laboratory (ORNL), https://www.ornl.gov. This facility is located
in eastern Tennessee and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
While it is known for developing technological solutions related to clean
energy and security, it also focuses on scientific activities related to various
national areas of concern such as the pandemic. ORNL hosts numerous
guest researchers and has many industry and academic partnerships. The
research presented in the features illustrates the impact that science and
engineering have on our world. We thank our ORNL guest editors Dr. Marti
Head and Dr. Moody Altamimi for their work coordinating the features.
The cover art shows an illustration of a coronavirus. The characteristic
structure consists of a spherical body with numerous surface projections.
In an electron microscope image, the virus takes the appearance of solar
corona. This imagery gives the coronavirus its name. We appreciate the
opportunity to use this art.
The magazine is a collaborative effort of a hard-working editorial board, with
members Emily Hernandez, Marcus Huggans, Hulya Kirkici, Zahra Manzoor,
and Emmanuel Oyeykanlu. We are assisted by Nancy Ostin and Stacey
Bersani, our talented IEEE-HKN staff. Thank you all.

Dr. Steve E.
Watkins
Gamma Theta Chapter

To our readers, please let us know what you like about the magazine
and what you want to see in future issues. We invite submissions for our
technical features, Chapter happenings, etc. Visit our website at https://hkn.
ieee.org/the-bridge/ or contact us by email at info@hkn.org. THE BRIDGE is
available on the IEEE App.

A Team Approach to COVID-19
Science and discovery are people-driven endeavors. The
Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL) is part of a vast, diverse scientific community filled
with inquiring minds, and when inspiration strikes, the results
can change the world. In early 2020, when a new virus
appeared, ORNL addressed myriad new challenges with an
engaging, team science approach, asking, " How can we help? "
Hundreds of ORNL scientists are currently members of IEEE
organizations, with nearly 50 who have received IEEE honors and
awards; over the years, 18 ORNL staff have been elected IEEE
fellows. In addition to this breadth of expertise across engineering
disciplines, ORNL staff are mathematicians, physicists, chemists,
biologists, computer scientists, and every day, ORNL researchers
bring their individual capabilities together in collaborative,
cross-disciplinary teams to solve challenges in energy, materials,
neutron science, high-performance computing, systems biology,
and national security.
In addition to this deep people expertise, ORNL is also home
to world-class user facilities including Summit, the nation's
fastest supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing
Facility; the Spallation Neutron Source, the world's most
powerful pulsed neutron source; the Center for Nanophase
Materials Science; the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility;
the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility; and many other
resources that enable groundbreaking scientific research and
discovery.
ORNL's creative and skilled researchers responded to
the current global crisis of COVID-19 by pivoting quickly,
bringing together the scientific and engineering expertise of
ORNL's people, the lab's world-leading computational and
experimental capabilities, and a strong culture of team science,
all in service of tackling the many challenges of the novel
coronavirus pandemic. Some of these projects involved small
teams of researchers working to chase an idea about how to
GUEST EDITORS

Credit: Jill Hemman/Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

THE BRIDGE

Dr. Marti Head is director of the Joint
Institute for Biological Sciences, a collaborative
research effort between ORNL and the
University of Tennessee focused on
new approaches to drug development,
personalized treatment, and diagnosis and
prediction of health outcomes. Before joining
ORNL, Dr. Head built the Insights from Data
team at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals,
where she was the Senior Director of
Computational Chemistry US for many
years. Dr. Head received her B.S. in chemistry from Hamline University
in St. Paul, Minnesota, and earned her Ph.D. in chemistry at Duke
University, where she completed a joint project with the computer science
department developing algorithms to use a special-purpose, massively
parallel computer to understand geometric properties of protein structures.
She subsequently was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at
the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology in Rockville, Maryland.

have an impact on this disease. Other projects were larger
efforts as part of the DOE's National Virtual Biotechnology
Laboratory (https://science.osti.gov/nvbl), a consortium
that brings together the capabilities of all 17 DOE national
laboratories. These scientists and collaborators continue
working with a sense of urgency in the fight against COVID-19.
This special issue is a snapshot of the many stories about
ORNL's response to COVID-19, including
* engineering and manufacturing advances that transitioned
to external partners to address critical shortages of personal
protective equipment to quickly ramp up production of N95
masks and COVID-19 test kits;
* research advances in testing and diagnostic technologies
to enable accurate understanding of the extent of disease
transmission and to enable the possibility of easier, at-home
detection of COVID-19 infections;
* integrated monitoring, modeling, and analysis of aggregated
data to paint a broader picture of environmental and societal
impacts of the pandemic and provide situational analysis for
decision-makers; and
* structural studies to understand SARS-CoV-2 proteins
with single-atom detail, along with new computational
technologies to speed the discovery of potential therapeutics.
Research described in these pages was supported by ORNL's
Laboratory-Directed Research and Development program and
by the DOE Office of Science's National Virtual Biotechnology
Laboratory with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES
Act. Although we focus on ORNL contributions here, the
influence of the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory
projects results from multiple national laboratory partners
collaboratively and creatively working together.
ORNL researchers will continue in the fight against COVID-19.
And there are opportunities for professionals like you to lend
your expertise-your inquiring minds-to change the world.
Dr. Moody E. Altamimi is the founding
director for the Office of Research Excellence
at ORNL. The office's mission is to foster
an inclusive ecosystem for thriving research
careers and impactful student research
experiences, facilitate strategic engagement
with leading institutions, and deliver evidencebased evaluations to support ORNL's
aspiration to be the world's premier research
and development institution. Dr. Altamimi's
diverse skill set and expertise in research
development and management, technology translation, and strategy
development and implementation support efforts to advance ORNL's
science and innovation culture. She works with students, postdoctoral
candidates, and early career scientists to inspire them to pursue highimpact science by encouraging collaboration and team science, which
leads to world-changing outcomes.

HKN.ORG

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The Bridge - Issue 1, 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Bridge - Issue 1, 2021