EMSL, the ‘Lamborghini’ of science labs, turns 20

At 20, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory is a year shy of the legal drinking age for humans.

But it’s safe to say the state-of-the-art research center at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has inspired more than its share of champagne toasts for its two decades of scientific breakthroughs.

EMSL turned 20 on Friday with a celebration headlined by U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, representatives standing in for Washington’s two U.S. senators and a lineup of proud Department of Energy executives.

Lab leaders skirted politics, focusing Friday’s celebration on cake, tea and reflecting on EMSL’s accomplishments. Scientists from almost all 50 states and 40-plus countries have used its facilities, often pronouncing them astonishing.

Staff scientists and 700 visiting “users” have produced more than 6,000 scientific publications. The work has been cited more than 200,000 times by scientists building on the work done at least in part at EMSL.

Newhouse and the Murray and Cantwell representatives vowed to keep fighting to preserve research funding for EMSL and PNNL.

The Trump administration’s proposed budget for the Department of Energy and its Office of Science led to fears PNNL could lose 1,000 jobs. Washington’s entire congressional delegation pushed back.

Newhouse said the House Appropriations Budget that passed last week restores $200 million in funding for the types of research conducted at EMSL. He’s hopeful the Senate will preserve EMSL funding when it takes up the 2018 appropriations bill next month.

Or, as he put it, “to do that voodoo that they do.”

Steven Ashby, PNNL’s director, called EMSL a gem within the larger campus. Its multidisciplinary work burnishes the lab’s reputation as it racks up thousands of breakthroughs in energy, environmental and biological sciences.

Ten years in the planning, EMSL was the brainchild of the late Dr. William R. Wiley, an innovative PNNL director who envisioned a high-tech research facility where staff and visiting scientists could explore connections between the physical, mathematical and life sciences at the molecular level.

It focused initially on supporting the environmental cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, but its work has spread from there.

Wiley died in 1996 and the lab was dedicated in his honor. An elementary school in West Richland bears his name as well.

But Gary Geernaert — director of the Climate and Environmental Sciences Division within DOE’s Biological and Environmental Research arm, or BER — believes it’s time to remember the man who made such an impact not only on science, but on the reputation of the Tri-Cities as a center for leading-edge research.

Its role was acknowledged in 2009 when DOE steered $60 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus act, to accelerate development and fund the addition of several advanced microscopes and a radio chemistry annex.

It took a special individual to unite the scientific community, the Department of Energy and Congress to get EMSL started back in the late 1980s, Geernaert said.

“Bill Wiley was the guy who could do that,” he said. At the 20-year mark, he challenged the lab and the Tri-Cities to elevate Wiley’s stature.

Lou Sherman, a professor of biology at Purdue University and director of a committee of lab users, shared the perspective of a visiting scientist.

He first visited the lab in 2004 for the Membrane Biology Grand Challenge, which could have implications for reusing the copious amounts of CO2 produced from burning biomass for power, potentially decreasing the amount of the greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.

Sherman remembered being impressed when he arrived in Eastern Washington

“I never ever knew such a place existed,” he said.

Working at EMSL is akin to driving a Lamborghini, he joked.

Sherman challenged politicians and lab leaders to keep EMSL on the bleeding edge, so everyone can come back in five or 10 years and congratulate another generation of scientists for doing a great job.

Liyuan Liang, who was appointed director of EMSL a year ago, promised to do her best.

“If we can do as well as we have done for the last 20 years, our future will be bright.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 5:53 PM with the headline "EMSL, the ‘Lamborghini’ of science labs, turns 20."