The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers earned five of nine awards presented by DOE’s Transportation Technologies Office during its 2026 Annual Merit Review, held in Arlington, Virginia.
The honors included two Distinguished Achievement Awards and three Team Awards recognizing advances in transportation efficiency, vehicle technologies and advanced manufacturing. These awards reflect the growing importance of ORNL's research in reducing reliance on critical minerals and materials.
Vivek Sujan, distinguished R&D staff in the Applied Research for Mobility Systems Group , received a Distinguished Achievement Award for research excellence in developing systematic modeling and optimization capabilities that support innovations in commercial vehicle and freight applications.
Sujan developed OR-AGENT — Optimal Regional Architecture Generation for Electrified National Transport — an advanced modeling framework for commercial vehicle operations, freight corridors and integrated energy systems. OR-AGENT synthesizes seasonal data on freight movement, traffic patterns, weather conditions and energy pathways to generate region-specific, techno-economically optimized strategies for infrastructure deployment.
Stacy Davis, group leader for the Transportation Analytics and Decision Sciences Group, received a Distinguished Achievement Award in recognition of technical leadership in producing the Fuel Economy Guide and website to inform consumer choices.
Davis has played a leading role in developing transportation energy information resources used by consumers, researchers and policymakers, helping drivers make informed decisions about vehicle efficiency and operating costs.
ORNL and BorgWarner received a Team Award for developing a unique wireless excitation system that provides a reliable option for high-performance electric motors that don’t require rare-earth elements.
The technology offers an alternative approach to achieving high motor performance without relying on rare-earth permanent magnets. It also supports efforts to strengthen domestic supply chains and expand consumer options.
ORNL team members included Omer Onar, Mostak Mohammad, Shajjad Chowdhury, Jonathan Wilkins, Emrullah Aydin, Himel Barua, Cliff White, Larry Seiber and Burak Ozpineci.
ORNL and Cummins received a Team Award for leadership in developing high-performance steel alloys for medium- and heavy-duty truck powertrains as well as high-pressure die casting and metalworking.
The work advances materials solutions that improve durability, manufacturability and performance in commercial transportation applications.
ORNL team members included Dean Pierce, Govindarajan Muralidharan, Rishi Pillai, Nana Adomako, Hsin Wang, Jon Poplawsky and J. Allen Haynes.
ORNL, General Motors, Ingalls Shipbuilding and the Electric Power Research Institute received a Team Award for expertise, teamwork and leadership in developing DR-WELD computational tools for large-scale welding and additive manufacturing.
The project advances computational capabilities that improve the design and execution of complex welding and manufacturing processes across multiple industries.
ORNL team members included Zhili Feng, Jian Chen and Hui Huang.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’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 .