Histato Yamaguchi holding a photosensitive cell that has been coated with Atomic Armor, a R&D 100 winning project. Courtesy photoLANL News:
“Oscars of Invention” honor the best innovations of the past year
Nine Los Alamos National Laboratory technologies won R&D 100 Awards and three inventions have won Special Recognition Awards, including a Gold and Silver for Corporate Social Responsibility, and a Gold Award for Market Disruptor Products.
“It’s an honor to have Los Alamos National Laboratory’s innovation recognized by the broader community with these nine R&D 100 awards,” Laboratory Director Thom Mason said. “Behind all of these awards are people willing to take risks and think unconventionally about big problems in areas like national security, big data, and energy transmission. Their originality has brought the Laboratory to where we are today. Congratulations to the winners, special recognition awardees, and finalists for their outstanding achievements.”
Los Alamos projects selected as R&D 100 Winners:
• ALFa LDS: Autonomous, low-cost, fast leak detection system can be flown on a drone or attached to a vehicle to locate, attribute, and distinguish natural gas leaks from biogenic methane sources.
• Atomic Armor: Nanomaterials protect sensitive technologies with a one-atom-thick shield.
• DeltaFS: Open-source file system rapidly searches big data to accelerate scientific discovery.
• FEARCE: Fast, easy, accurate and robust continuum engineering models processes in internal combustion engines to aid enhanced fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.
• MC-15 Portable Neutron Multiplicity Detector: Small, light, and fast portable neutron multiplicity detector enables nuclear response teams to quickly identify and assess nuclear-based threats.
• Severe Contingency Solver for Electric Power Transmission Analysis: Open-source software analyzes severely damaged electric power networks, assessing how damage from extreme events will restrict power delivery from utility grids.
• SimCCS2.0: Open-source software enables the design of CO2 capture, transport, and storage infrastructure.
• SPLASH: Smart platforms leveraging automated sample handling use magnetically actuated microfluidic operations to create complex fluid circuits for point-of-need applications of complex laboratory processes.
• Unified Communications X (UCX): Provides an open-source, exascale-ready communications framework for high performance computing.
“I congratulate the R&D 100 Award teams,” said Deputy Director for Science, Technology, and Engineering John Sarrao. “These innovations continue the Laboratory’s tradition of scientific and engineering excellence in support of our national security mission, industrial competitiveness, and the broader technical community. The awards demonstrate the strength of our partnerships with industry, academia, and other national laboratories in developing innovative solutions to challenging problems.”
The R&D 100 Awards
The prestigious “Oscars of Invention” honor the latest and best innovations and identify the top technology products of the past year. The R&D 100 Awards span industry, academia and government-sponsored research organizations.
Since 1978 Los Alamos has won more than 162 of the prestigious R&D 100 Awards. The Laboratory’s discoveries, developments, advancements and inventions make the world a better and safer place, bolster national security and enhance national competitiveness.
See all of the 2019 R&D 100 Winners. Read more about the Laboratory’s past R&D 100 Awards.
Read more about the Laboratory’s past R&D 100 Awards.
About Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), The Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), and The Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.
