Qualifications

The Program is designed for scientists within 10 years of their Ph.D. who are located at academic, industrial, or government institutions. Candidates who are able to obtain a leave of absence or sabbatical from their home institution are welcome to apply.

Fellows will be selected based on

  • the creativity they exhibit,
  • the depth of understanding of the field that they demonstrate, and
  • an assessment of their ability to make outstanding contributions to the development of neutron scattering or imaging instruments and/or components.

In order to make the selections based on these criteria, the following process will be used.

Initial evaluations to select finalists will be based solely on a review of the submitted material (proposal, CV, and publication list). This review will be carried out by e-mail by a small panel (four to six members) with a mix of ORNL and outside personnel.

The members of the review panel will be approved by the Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences (DOE-BES). They will consider educational background, experience, publications, originality/creativity of the proposed project, relevance/potential value of the proposed project, feasibility of the proposed project, and depth of understanding exhibited in the project proposal.

These last 4 items, all of which deal with the project proposal, will be weighted most heavily, and together will count for 70 to 80 percent of the candidate’s rating. Unless there is an exceptionally talented group of applicants, no more than three will be selected as finalists in any given year.

Finalists will be invited to ORNL to be interviewed by the selection committee and other scientists as appropriate. Information provided by persons serving as references for the finalists will also be included in each candidate's rating. The formal interview process will include not only individual meetings with panelists and other scientists, but also a short, prepared presentation by the candidate, followed by extensive questioning by the panel to further assess the extent to which the candidate fulfills the selection criteria.

Fellowship selection will be based on ratings generated by this peer review process and result in a prioritized ranking of the finalists with concurrence by ORNL’s Neutron Scattering Sciences Directorate. The rankings and final documentation will be submitted to DOE-BES for final selection and determination of funding.

Proposal Process

Proposals are requested to develop novel concepts for neutron instrumentation that will enable studies in areas of science hitherto unexplored by neutrons to be addressed or which will significantly improve current methods in the field. The proposals may describe an entire instrument concept or a major component of an instrument including, but not limited to, detectors, polarization techniques, optical components, analysis software, or source components.

Each candidate proposal should include both scientific and personal sections:

  • the theoretical basis for the proposal,
  • the research needed for the expected advances to occur,
  • the new science that might be enabled by these advances.

The personal section should be a resume of the candidate including contact information, education, citations of recent significant publications, honors and awards and references.