Above Images: On the left, the “Sandia Cooler [1]” – also known as the “Air Bearing Heat Exchanger” will significantly reduce the energy needed to cool the processor chips in data centers and large-scale computing environments (NNSA Press Release 6/20/12). The Sandia Cooler was one of 11 2012 R&D 100 Awards received by NNSA labs and was one of the nine awarded projects made possible by LDRD and SDRD.
On the right, a poster presentation at the LDRD Symposium June 12, 2012 (see NNSA photo gallery on Flickr [2]).
News
- LDRD Symposium June 12 was a huge success with 123 attendees, including 3 Congressional Staffers, 11 attendees from private industry and academia, 7 program/field office employees, and 15 attendees from other Federal agencies. Presentations are available at http://tri-lab.lanl.gov/ [3].
- Of the 11 R&D 100 Awards received by NNSA labs and NNSS [4], 9 or (82%) were made possible by LDRD and SDRD.
- Amy Clarke (LANL LDRD) received a 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) [5]. The two LLNL PECASE winners have LDRD pedigree, and two SNL LDRD investigators also received awards.
- Fission neutrons can now be distinguished from background radiation using a novel variation of a metal-organic framework (MOF) scintillator that was a new class of scintillator previously patented by Sandia. More information is available at https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/radiation_detection/ [6].
- Livermore researchers developed the first plastic material capable of efficiently distinguishing neutrons from gamma rays, something not thought possible for the past five decades or so (see Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory News Release 1/11/2012 [7]).
