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Ilke Arslan at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory focuses on a technique used to reconstruct the 3D morphology of nanoparticles based on a series of 2D images. The images Arslan and her colleagues make possible will answer key questions in catalysis, critical for improving our global energy landscape.Ilke Arslan: A catalyst for clarity

A diplomat’s daughter, Ilke Arslan spent her childhood listening to different perspectives and asking questions as she travelled between Turkey and the rest of the world. She quickly learned meaningful change meant understanding a situation from all sides and that a flat or simplistic view would not do. Growing up living in Turkey, New York, Chicago, and visiting her father as he was stationed in Vietnam and Mexico, she saw, first hand, the economic, environmental, and security costs of our global energy situation.

"The experiences of global travel and many social engagements with various diplomats and ambassadors throughout my childhood allowed me see people and challenges from different vantage points. It drove me to find ways to really dig into problems and to work together to build answers," said Arslan, who works at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

At the age of 17, she went off to the University of Illinois in Chicago, where she earned her bachelor's degree in physics and a minor in Spanish, to complement her English and Turkish. As part of her minor in Spanish, she spent several months studying abroad in Spain. In her spare time, she played first clarinet in the university’s band, played briefly on the women’s tennis team, taught tennis, and danced in a professional company for artistic events throughout Chicago. After finishing her master’s degree in physics, she left Chicago's cold winters for sunny California, where she completed her doctoral degree in physics at UC Davis at the age of 25.

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Bette Korber of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who developed a component of a new vaccine against HIV, now being tested in monkeys.New global HIV vaccine design shows promise in monkeys

New global HIV vaccine design shows promise in monkeys

The considerable diversity of HIV worldwide represents a critical challenge for designing an effective HIV vaccine. Now, it appears that that a vaccine bioinformatically optimized for immunologic coverage of global HIV diversity, called a mosaic vaccine and designed by Bette Korber and her team at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, may confer protection from infection.

“This is the first time the mosaic antigen inserts were used in a challenge study. In a challenge study, vaccine-elicited protection from infection is tested, versus testing a vaccine for its ability to stimulate good immune responses,” says Bette Korber of Los Alamos.

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See also…

DOE Pulse
  • Number 401  |
  • November 18, 2013
  • DarkLight attempts to bridge visible universe with dark matter

    Jefferson Lab laser accelerator operators threaded an electron beam through a small tube the size of a coffee stirrer inside this apparatus to show that the DarkLight experiment was possible. DarkLight will search for dark photons, which are particles that interact with both dark matter and visible matter. For thousands of years, humanity has relied on light to reveal the mysteries of our universe, whether it's by observing the light given off by brightly burning stars or by shining light on the very small with microscopes. 

    Yet, according to recent evidence, scientists think that only about five percent of our Universe is made of visible matter: ordinary atoms that make up nearly everything we can see, touch and feel. The other 95 percent is composed of the so-called dark sector, which includes dark matter and dark energy. These are described as “dark” because we observe their effects on other objects rather than by “seeing” them directly. Now, to study the dark, scientists are turning to what they know about light, and they are pointing to a recently successful test of experimental equipment that suggests an exploration of the dark sector may be possible at DOE's Jefferson Lab.

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  • SRNL and partners explore coatings for next generation of nuclear fuels

    SRNL and partners explore coatings for next generation of nuclear fuels While fuels used in commercial reactors in the United States today are already extremely robust, there is always an interest in improving the state of the art.

    And while advanced fuel development is not a new program, the events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station have led U.S. policymakers to reexamine current designs – can we do better?

    DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is a partner with AREVA, the Universities of Wisconsin and Florida, the Electric Power Research Institute, TVA and Duke Power, on a project to identify, develop and begin testing new fuel concepts.  The program is under the auspices of DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.  The overall goal represents a materials science challenge – to identify advanced materials and / or fuel cladding that would improve performance and safety, both during reactor service and during long-term fuel storage.

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  • Ames Lab to acquire first-of-kind NMR

    Ames Laboratory will acquire a Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP)-NMR instrument. DNP-NMR combines two techniques, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy with NMR, producing more sensitive, rapid research results. Photo courtesy of Bruker.DOE’s Ames Laboratory will soon acquire a Dynamic Nuclear Polarization-NMR spectrometer, which will be the first of its kind in the United States to be used in the study of materials and materials chemistry.

    “The DNP-NMR is essentially a combination of two techniques, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy with nuclear magnetic resonance, which yields an amazing increase in sensitivity,” says Cynthia Jenks, assistant director of scientific planning for the Ames Laboratory and director of the chemical and biological sciences division. “In the types of materials we study, we’ve been able to demonstrate an enhancement of anywhere from eight to 30 times in signal sensitivity. Results that used to take a week to obtain will now take hours or minutes.”

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  • Sandia recognized for sustainable greenhouse gas management

    Sandia National Laboratories’ High Energy Radiation Megavolt Electron Source (HERMES) III pulsed power facility. (Photo by Randy Montoya)DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories has been recognized for reducing the use of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) with an award in the Greenhouse Gas Scope 1 and 2 category, which applies to emissions from sources owned or controlled by a federal agency and from the generation of electricity, heat or steam purchased by a federal agency. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified SF6 as having the highest global warming potential of any gas, at 23,900 carbon dioxide equivalents.

    Sandia’s Saturn and HERMES III pulsed power facilities use SF6 as an electrical insulator for high-voltage switching devices, such as spark gaps and cascade switches.

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