Bronson Messer is the Director of Science at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Bronson Messer, a distinguished staff scientist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), one of the highest honors bestowed by the organization. Messer was nominated by the APS Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public for his exceptional efforts in making physics accessible and exciting to a wide audience.
The citation recognizes Messer “for conveying the excitement and universal impact of physics to students, teachers, professionals and the public via talks, multimedia, laboratory tours, popular national events, and for direct outreach to underserved Appalachian students and teachers.”
In addition to his leadership role at OLCF, where he ensures high-performance computing resources are used to drive scientific breakthroughs, Messer also serves as a Joint Faculty Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Tennessee. There, he mentors students and conducts research on topics such as neutrino transport, dense matter physics, turbulent nuclear combustion and other topics in nuclear astrophysics.
His contributions have also earned him several honors, including the Oak Ridge Postdoctoral Association’s Mentor of the Year award in 2020 and the prestigious R&D 100 Award in 2022 for his leadership on the Flash-X software project.
The OLCF is a DOE Office of Science user facility.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.
