Awards
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Discover Award Winners
The Discover Magazine Awards for Technological Innovation were presented
by
the Christopher Columbus Foundation
"to recognize the all-too-often neglected men and women behind
the technologies that impact our lives."
Each year Discover accepts thousands of nominations from all over the world. The editorial staff then selects finalists, and sends information on each on to an independent panel of experts, which selects winners in key technology areas. The winners receive their awards in a gala ceremony in June and are featured in the July issue of Discover Magazine. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory staff have won 4 of the awards since their inception in 1990, including the top award, and have had 3 finalists.
In addition, a $100,000 fellowship is presented by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, an independent federal agency established by Congress in 1992 to "encourage and support research, study, and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind." The Foundation chooses one innovation from all entries to receive the prize, which recognizes an attempt to improve the world through ingenuity and innovation. The award honors individuals whose creative genius improves the quality of everyday life and alerts us to what's next from the frontiers of human achievement and ingenuity. PNNL staff member Dr. Richard Craig won the award in 2001.
For more information on PNNL's Discover Awards, contact Mary Anne Wuennecke.
2001 - See https://www.pnnl.gov/news/2001/01-21.htm for more information on PNNL's winners.
Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation Award Winner-Timed Neutron Detector-Richard Craig
The Timed Neutron Detector (TND) was honored by Discover Magazine with the 2001 Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation Award. This award is given to a living American currently working on a discovery that will significantly affect society and that needs additional funds to be realized. The TND, developed by Dick Craig and Tony Peurrung, looks similar to a metal detector, yet it applies neutron physics to find indications of a land mine's presence. The system detects hydrogen, which is present in casings and explosives found in plastic or metal land mines, and hydrogen's interactions with neutrons. Thus land mines can be accurately and safely located for disarming. See http://www.discover.com/july_01/gthere.html?article=01awards.html.
Winner - Health Category - Combined Optical/Magnetic Resonance Microscope-Robert Wind
This innovation combines the principles of magnetic resonance imaging and confocal microscopy to create a new microscope to study cells. With this new instrument, live cells can, for the first time, be examined simultaneously with two entirely different microscopic techniques. In this way, the information provided by both microscopes can be combined and integrated. This makes it possible to follow cellular events in real time, and in more detail than is possible with each of the microscopes individually.
Findings based on this new technology are likely to have a significant impact on basic cellular research and increase our knowledge of how cells work and respond to stresses, such as exposure to contamination. The technology and its resulting research also may become of great value in medical laboratories and hospitals in improving the detection and diagnosis of diseased cells and in evaluating a patient's response to therapy.
"We're excited about where this technology is taking us because it may allow us to study a variety of cell processes in more detail than ever before, including those of critical importance to such things as cancer diagnosis and therapy," said Robert Wind, who led the multidisciplinary development team. (For more information, see http://collaboratory.emsl.pnnl.gov/docs/csd/annual_report1999/1578b_5a.html.)
Winner - Transportation Category - Micro-Plasmatron Fuel Converter
Daniel Cohn of MIT and colleagues, including Jud Virden at PNNL, shared the winning award for developing the world's smallest oil refinery. The plasmatron looks a little like a fat spark plug, and it can use anything that burns as fuel to produce electricity that turns the fuel and surrounding air into plasma, a hot collection of charged atoms and electrons. The end product is a hydrogen-rich gas that burns far more cleanly than gasoline.
1999
Finalist - Environment Category - Mesoporous Silica for
Mercury Removal-Xiangdong Feng
While a researcher at PNNL, Feng developed a process where molecules that can grab mercury out of the water are placed inside mesoporous silica. This spongelike rock has a surface area thousands of times larger than its size allowing it to grab the mercury quickly and efficiently. Eventually, Feng says, it should be possible to reduce the presence of mercury to a few parts per trillion, compared with a few parts per billion for current techniques, and do it more quickly as well. In addition, Feng says his invention can remove just about any pollutant or heavy metal from contaminated water. "People say I should quit my day job and start mining for gold."
Mesoporous Silica also won an R&D 100 award in 1998.
For more information, contact Glen Fryxell.
Winner - Computer Hardware and Electronics Category - MUSTPAC-1 (Medical Ultrasound, Three-dimensional and Portable with Advanced Communications - Rik Littlefield
MUSTPAC-1 allows a field medic or physician to perform three-dimensional scans of an ill or injured soldier. Experts anywhere in the world can then interpret the scans.
Developed for the military, the portable unit weighs about 85 pounds, fits in a backpack, and can be configured to run on batteries. MUSTPAC-1 will bring the benefits of sophisticated ultrasound imaging used in major hospitals to the front lines. Army officials hope this device may someday reduce the number of battlefield deaths. For the less severely injured, the technology promises to provide previously unavailable medical diagnosis and treatment with improved quality of care.
In addition to military applications, MUSTPAC-1 could be used by rural physicians in treating medical emergencies and providing assistance in hard-to-access places such as mountains, boats, and even outer space.
1996
Finalist - Environmental Category - RubberCycle: Tire-Recycling
Microbes-Robert Romine
PNNL chemist Bob Romine was working on a way of using recycled tire rubber in asphalt pavement when his wife, Margaret, a PNNL microbiologist, introduced him to Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. As the name implies, the bug likes to dine on sulfur found among the minerals in the hot springs. When added to a vat of powdered tire rubber, the microbe attacks the sulfur in the rubber. That turns out to be the best way of decomposing this chemically tough material that is hard to recycle. Although virgin rubber is like "a plate of wet noodles," as Romine says, when heated the sulfur atoms combine with carbon to form a stiff lattice. Sulfolobus breaks the lattice down. Automobile tires generally cannot contain any more than 3 percent of recycled rubber because of high performance requirements: inert impurities would cause too much heat to build up when the rubber meets the road, making the tires wear out quickly. For this reason, Romine makes sure to curb his bacteria, either by lowering the temperature or raising the pH, before they break down all the sulfur-carbon bonds. That way the rubber can be made to bond more thoroughly with virgin rubber during recycling. Because these bonds dissipate heat, tires can contain up to 15 percent of the recycled rubber without sacrificing quality.
RubberCycle also won and R&D award in 1997.
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