Awards

R&D 100 Awards

R&D Magazine sponsors the prestigious R&D 100 Award, considered one of the highest honors that can be given to inventors. Each year, the magazine selects the 100 most technologically significant products and processes submitted for consideration and honors them with an R&D 100 Award. The judges look for products or processes that promise to change people's lives, such as by significantly improving the environment, health care, or security. Since 1978, the NIF & Photon Science Directorate and its predecessor, the Laser Programs Directorate, have received 52 R&D 100 awards.

Other

Members of the NIF & Photon Science Directorate have been honored with a variety of prestigious awards over the years, including awards of excellence from the American Physical Society, American Nuclear Society, and Fusion Power Associates. NIF & Photon Science personnel also have earned three American Nuclear Society Edward Teller medals.

Technology Transfer

One of the most coveted awards in the field of technology transfer, the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer, recognizes laboratory employees who have accomplished outstanding work in the process of transferring federally developed technology to the marketplace. A panel of experts from industry, state and local government, academia, and the federal laboratory system judge the nominations.

Fellows

American Physical Society (APS) Fellowships recognize those who have made advances in knowledge through original research or have made significant and innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology.

Each year, no more than one-half of one percent of APS' current membership is recognized by their peers for election to the status of Fellow. The hundred-year-old society numbers 40,000 physicists worldwide.

The Optical Society of America also recognizes distinguished achievement in the field of optics through the presentation of awards and honors.