August 08 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine

Laboratory researchers receive two R&D 100 awards

Cutting-edge innovations garnered Los Alamos researchers two of R&D Magazine's prestigious R&D 100 Awards. The awards, which will be presented October 16 in Chicago, recognize the top 100 industrial innovations worldwide in 2008. Winning Laboratory projects are the 3-D Tracking Microscope and Laser-Weave® technology.

"Congratulations to our R&D 100 Award-winners for this acknowledgement of scientific excellence," said Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio. "The awards demonstrate that the Laboratory continues to be at the forefront of developing innovative concepts and translating them into practical applications."

This year's awards bring the Laboratory's total to 107 since it began entering the competition in 1978.

Photo by Sandra Valdez

Jim Werner, 3-D Microscope

Jim Werner of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (MPA-CINT), who recently won a coveted R&D 100 award for developing a microscope capable of tracking nanometer-sized objects in three dimensions, is one of the humblest people you'll ever meet.

"I was singled out in the press because I happened to write the application," said Werner, who holds a doctorate in applied physics from Cornell University. "I couldn't have done it without my team."

Werner said Peter Goodwin, Guillaume Lessard, and Nathan Wells, all of MPA-CINT, deserve credit for helping to create the revolutionary new instrument.

The team designed the world's first confocal microscope capable of following the motion of individual molecules, quantum dots, organic fluorophores, single green fluorescent proteins, and other nanometer-sized objects as they zoom through three-dimensional space at rates faster than many intracellular transport processes. The microscope will find primary application in cellular biology, where it will help track the transportation of molecules inside cells, Werner said.

The scientist said that his interest in developing the microscope was sparked by a conference on single molecule biophysics he attended several years ago, where there were a number of interesting reports of two-dimensional single molecule tracking. "It became fairly obvious to me that the technology needed to develop into 3-D," he said.

Werner spent the next five years trying to do just that.

"Peter Goodwin and I went back and forth with methods," he remembered. "We finally came up with a pretty good design and strategy."

The team spent long hours performing simulations, writing software to control the microscope, and building the instrument. Werner said he decompressed by playing soccer, flyfishing, and snowboarding. "I love the outdoors," he said. "That's partly why I love living here in Los Alamos."

Werner said that winning the R&D 100 Award has greatly increased awareness of the technology in the scientific community. The experience also confirmed one of Werner's most closely held axioms.

"I learned a long time ago from Dick Keller (Keller is a Laboratory Fellow and a pioneer of single molecule detection) that scientific discovery is driven by instrument development," he said. "It means so much to all of us that we were able to come up with a successful design."

Photo by Sandra Valdez

James Maxwell, Laser-Weave®

James Maxwell of Applied Electromagnetics has been involved in laser and microchemical processing for more than 12 years. Recently, his hard work paid off big: the groundbreaking Laser-Weave technique he pioneered garnered him one of R&D Magazine's prestigious R&D 100 Awards, known in the industry as the "Oscars of Invention."

Laser-Weave refers to a process involving hyperbaric laser chemical vapor deposition that allows scientists, engineers, and manufacturers to grow high-strength inorganic fibers into useful shapes and complex patterns, braid or weave strong cables, cloth, or composites with lasers, produce high-value, cost-effective refractory ropes and textiles, and prototype high-aspect ratio micro-electrical mechanical systems.

"To put it simply, we grow things from gases using lasers," said Maxwell, who holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering with a specialty in laser microchemical processing from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Maxwell's technique lets him grow structures and fibers at astonishing speeds. "Laser-Weave is able to produce 13 centimeters of growth rate along the cable length per second," he said. When laser-woven fibers are braided together, the resulting cloth is exceptionally strong and able to withstand high temperatures and can be employed in a variety of applications, Maxwell explained.

"It can be used in anything from the inside of your toaster to exhaust nozzles in rocket engines," he said.

Maxwell said winning an R&D 100 Award will open doors for him in the future. "Already, companies are approaching the Technology Transfer Division looking to license or incorporate this technology," he said.

Maxwell explained that his research is driven by a curiosity of the world around him, the wish to serve his country, and the desire to raise living standards by developing superior products and technologies and making them accessible to the general public.

"I learned a long time ago that engineering and science are what ultimately build wealth in societies," he said.

"Innovators help society as a whole, and it's very exciting to be a part of that."

--Tatjana K. Rosev