Most of these projects are designed to acquire and apply scientific knowledge of the Earth's systems to help DOE achieve its mission in national security, environmental quality, energy resources, industrial competitiveness, and science and technology. They are engaged in a vast array of fundamental and applied environmental, geochemical and geophysical research projects. They create new instruments, such as new geophysical and geochemical sensors and sensor systems, as well as new technologies and new approaches for the deployment of those sensors and sensor systems and for the acquisition, analysis, and visualization of data from them.
Many projects also represent the straightforward application of technical skills and abilities.
Such applications include solving important environmental-restoration problems in the DOE complex. Research partnerships with private companies and collaborations with university faculty and students are common elements in many projects. New scientific knowledge of some aspect of the Earth's systems is a common result, as well as publications in the scientific literature and participation in professional organizations. Geoscientists in DOE national laboratories work in an environment that has both similarities and differences relative to research universities, industrial laboratories, state agencies, or other federal agencies. One common difference, for example, is that the overall work environment for many geoscientists in DOE national laboratories is one of close proximity to an exciting mix of people with a multitude of scientific and engineering viewpoints and backgrounds, including physicists in high-energy and nuclear physics, chemists, material scientists, computer scientists, bioscientists, and numerous engineering specialtiesall in addition to other geoscientists.