Denise Antunes da Silva, a senior R&D staff member at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society for her outstanding contributions to the field of ceramics and materials science.
The honor was announced at the American Ceramic Society’s fall meeting held during the Materials Science and Technology Conference in Columbus, Ohio.
The society has more than 10,000 members worldwide. Fellows are nominated and elected by their peers in recognition of sustained excellence, impactful scholarship and meaningful service to the scientific and engineering community.
Silva is a building envelope materials scientist and works with DOE’s Building Technologies Research and Integration Center at ORNL, where she focuses on improving the efficiency and durability of high-performance building materials for new construction and retrofits.
Her research includes cement-based materials, alternative binders, building materials containing natural materials, such as fibers and earth, and modular building systems. This research supports U.S. competitiveness by developing domestically-sourced and affordable, critical building materials.
Prior to joining ORNL in 2021, Silva spent 15 years in R&D roles in U.S. industry focused on bringing solutions to the market to improve the performance and efficiency of cement-based materials through the utilization of chemical admixtures. A native of Brazil, Silva was also a civil engineering professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina.
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. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.