PNNL

John L. Orrell is a research scientist in the Detection Physics group of the National Security Directorate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). For more than two decades, Orrell has designed, built, and operated instruments to measure some of the rarest physical processes in nature. His work includes studying neutrino interactions at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, which demonstrated neutrino flavor oscillation, and with the COHERENT experiment, which verified the prediction of coherent nuclear scattering of neutrinos. More recently, his research has focused on rare-event searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay and dark matter with MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, nEXO, CoGeNT, and SuperCDMS.

Orrell’s core technical expertise is low-background, ultrasensitive radiation detection—a discipline focused on building instruments sensitive enough to reveal signals typically obscured by other experimentally verified processes.

Orrell has also spent much of the last decade building institutional structures to support PNNL’s participation in international research teams. As chief scientist of PNNL’s Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Initiative from 2016 to 2022, he helped grow PNNL’s first sponsor-supported high-energy and nuclear physics research program from a nascent capability into a self-sustaining program. Since 2020, he has served as PNNL’s institutional representative to the Department of Energy’s Office of High Energy Physics. In this role, he has translated sponsor strategy into program direction across PNNL’s Cosmic Frontier, Advanced Detector R&D, and Intensity Frontier portfolios while leveraging quantum information science and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to support high-energy physics research.

More recently, Orrell has extended his research into quantum computing, applying his experience in ultra-low-background detector device physics to the problem of environmental radiation limiting the coherence of superconducting qubits. As co-corresponding author of a 2020 result published in Nature, he helped establish a finding that is shaping how the field designs future fault-tolerant quantum computing systems.

Orrell is contributing to PNNL’s quantum computing investment strategy, which seeks to expand the potential for scientific discovery by harnessing the quantum nature of the universe. Across his work, he combines rigorous experimental physics with program and project leadership to carry out DOE-mission science from concept to execution.

• Experimental nuclear and particle physics
• Neutrino, dark matter, and astroparticle physics
• Low-background and rare-event radiation detection
• Detector design, fabrication, and materials radiopurity
• Superconducting quantum device characterization
• Cross-institutional project management (PMP certified)
• DOE program and portfolio development

• Doctor of Philosophy, Physics, University of Washington
• Bachelor of Science, Philosophy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Bachelor of Science, Physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

• Institutional Representative, DOE Office of High Energy Physics (2020–present)
• Co-Convener, Underground Facilities & Infrastructure Frontier, Snowmass 2021 Community Summer Study
• American Physical Society (Life Member) — Division of Particles and Fields; Division of Nuclear Physics; Northwest Section (elected Chair-line, 2015–2019)
• Conference Organization — Dark Matter Silver Jubilee (June 19–21, 2012), Low Radioactivity Techniques Workshop (March 18–20, 2015), and APS Northwest Section Meeting (June 1–3, 2017)
• Project Management Institute, Columbia Basin Chapter
• Mentor to 4 postdoctoral fellows, 1 graduate student, and 17 undergraduate interns since 2007

• Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016), awarded as a member of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory collaboration for resolving the solar neutrino problem and demonstrating neutrino flavor transformation

2020

• Impact of ionizing radiation on superconducting qubit coherence. AP Vepsäläinen et al. Nature 584, 551–556 (2020)

2019

• Search for low-mass dark matter with CDMSlite using a profile likelihood fit. R Agnese et al. Physical Review D 99, 062001 (2019)

2017

• Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. D Akimov et al. Science 357, 1123–1126 (2017) 

2014

• The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment. N Abgrall et al. Advances in High Energy Physics, 365432 (2014)

2008

• Experimental constraints on a dark matter origin for the DAMA annual modulation effect. CE Aalseth et al. Physical Review Letter 101, 251301 (2008)

2002

• Direct evidence for neutrino flavor transformation from neutral-current interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. QR Ahmad et al. Physical Review Letters 89, 011301 (2002)