Sandia National Laboratories researcher Hongyou Fan holds a container enclosing gold supercrystals in front of a small-angle X-ray scattering instrument. Binary Solvent Diffusion for Fabrication of Large Nanoparticle Supercrystals won an R&D Award.
Sandia National Laboratories researcher Hongyou Fan holds a container enclosing gold supercrystals in front of a small-angle X-ray scattering instrument. Binary Solvent Diffusion for Fabrication of Large Nanoparticle Supercrystals won an R&D Award.

Awards often referred to as the ‘Oscars of Innovation’

R&D Magazine has named 13 NNSA projects led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Nevada National Security Site and Sandia National Laboratories as winners in the annual R&D 100 Awards, which honor the 100 most innovative technologies and services of the past year.

The awards, which are often referred to as the “Oscars of Innovation,” were announced in three separate virtual events Sept. 29 and 30 and Oct. 1, 2020.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: A cold-spray chamber is shown during deposition, with the nozzle at the top of the image and a near-full density sample being fabricated in the center.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: A cold-spray chamber is shown during deposition, with the nozzle at the top of the image and a near-full density sample being fabricated in the center.

An independent panel of judges selected the award winners based on the technical significance, uniqueness, and usefulness of projects and technologies from across industry, government, and academia.

Listed below are the winning NNSA labs and site and their corresponding technologies. A complete list of winners can be found at R&D World.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Versatile Cold Spray deposits a broad range of brittle and glassy materials, including functional materials such as thermoelectric devices and magnets, onto any substrate and in doing so, opens the door to creating thermoelectric generators and other functional components such as permanent magnets and insulators on industrial parts with complex shapes.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Amanzi-ATS is open-source software that includes the most complete suite of surface/subsurface physical processes to model complex environmental systems across multiple scales.

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Ramesh Jha was among the winners, with the Smart Microbial Cell Technology project, an ultra-high-throughput screening platform to engineer custom biocatalysts.
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Ramesh Jha was among the winners, with the Smart Microbial Cell Technology project, an ultra-high-throughput screening platform to engineer custom biocatalysts.

Cluster Integrity, Exception Resolution and Reclustering Algorithm (CIERRA) is a software tool that analyzes massive amounts of satellite-collected lightning observations to provide the most comprehensive and accurate understanding of lightning data.

Legion Programming System is a data-centric, open-source, high-performance computer software tool that boosts application performance and speed of computing by automating task scheduling and data movement.

Multi-Burn Solid Rocket provides multiple independent thrusts from a single solid rocket to enable small satellites to maneuver, avoid debris, and de-orbit.

OrganiCam is the first camera for noncontact, nondestructive biodetection in remote environments and space.

QUIC-Fire software is the first laptop-capable, fast-running 3D fire-atmosphere feedback model for wildland fire management.

Smart Microbial Cell Technology is an ultra-high-throughput screening platform to engineer custom biocatalysts that enhance the rate of chemical reactions critical in pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and environmental cleanup.

The XRPBS, developed at Nevada National Security Site, splits the X-ray beam into two detectors. It won an R&D 100 award.
The XRPBS, developed at Nevada National Security Site, splits the X-ray beam into two detectors. It won an R&D 100 award.

Spectroscopic Detection of Nerve Agents (SEDONA) is the only portable screener to accurately detect the chemical nerve agents in unopened bottles, providing results in seconds.

Nevada National Security Site

X-ray Polarizing Beam Splitter (XRPBS) has the ability to separate an X-ray beam in two in order to measure each polarized beam simultaneously, which will be used for diagnostics within the Nuclear Security Enterprise.

Sandia National Laboratories

Binary Solvent Diffusion for Fabrication of Large Nanoparticle Supercrystals was created using nanotechnology and chemistry to self-assemble gold nanoparticles into millimeter-sized supercrystals that are sensitive to chemical traces. The supercrystals obtained through this process also proved to have superior qualities in optoelectronics, photovoltaics, and surface catalysis.

High-density Evaluator of Commercial-off-the-shelf Applications for Trust and Efficacy (HECATE) is a software supply chain and assurance platform that reduces the risks for users of commercial and open-source software.

Tracktable applies advanced machine-learning techniques to large trajectory data sets, searching for shapes and patterns in space and time by providing a mathematical framework that describes particular arrangements of data.