Dr. Lenny Tender Receives the Arthur S. Flemming Award

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory research chemist, Dr. Lenny Tender, is recipient of the 2011 Arthur S. Flemming Award, presented June 4 at the 63rd annual awards event hosted by The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

In a ceremony held June 4, 2012, at The George Washington University, Dr. Lenny Tender (center) is presented the Arthur S. Flemming Award. Pictured from left to right: Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology; Dr. Lenny Tender, research chemist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory; Dr. Steven Lerman, George Washington University, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.
(Source: George Washington University/Jessica McConnell Burt)

Established in 1948, the award honors outstanding federal workers in the categories of applied science, engineering and mathematics, research, and managerial or legal achievement. Selected from all areas of the federal service, award winners are recognized by the President of the United States, agency heads and industry leaders.

Co-inventor of the Benthic Unattended Generator (BUG), a microbial fuel cell that persistently generates electrical power in marine environments, Tender is an internationally recognized leader in microbial fuel cell (MFC) research that spans implications in alternative, carbon neutral, energy generation that address pressing needs of the Navy, Department of Defense (DoD) and the Nation.

Tender's research in benthic MFC development has significant implications to future Navy capabilities with respect to persistent in-water Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations for warfighters in riverine, estuarine, and close-in littoral environments.

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Tender has expanded his MFC research to include wastewater treatment. Whereas conventional treatment processes consume significant power, an issue that confronts the DoD and developing countries alike, MFCs may enable power generation from wastewater treatment. His research has also resulted in the recent demonstration of an MFC in which photosynthetic microorganisms are incorporated that regenerate MFC reactants from the products, enabling power generation from sunlight with internal energy storage.

Deployed, August 2004, in the Potomac River near the south end of the Naval Research Laboratory's pier, a meteorological data buoy (center) and an array of 6 first generation Benthic Unattended Generators (BUGs) successfully demonstrated Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) as a practical alternative to batteries for low-power applications. The BUGs, consisting of electrodes imbedded in sediment in the bottom of the river, provided uninterrupted sustained power to the buoy to monitor air temperature and pressure, relative humidity and water temperature for nearly seven months until the buoy was pulled down river by an ice flow, severing electrical connection to the BUG units.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

In addition to his scientific obligations and contributions, Tender also heads the Laboratory for Interfacial Interactions at the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, overseeing the highly multidisciplinary work of 16 federal scientists and a number of post-doctoral fellows working in a variety of research areas to include immunoassays, microbiology, chemical/biological surface modification and micropatterning, fluorescence surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, molecular self-assembly, barnacle adhesion, and interfacial kinetics and thermodynamics.

Tender also contributes to the development of future scientists by mentoring five post-doctoral associates, two of which are now his colleagues, one graduate student by special appointment to the University of Maryland faculty, one undergraduate student, and a total of 22 high school student interns.

The award is named after Dr. Arthur Sherwood Flemming (1905-1996) who began federal service in 1939 as member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission and developed a career that spanned seven decades providing exemplary service to the federal government and higher education. He went on to serve as president of three universities, Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and Chairman of both the U.S. Commission on Aging and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Flemming was Chairman of the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights and Co-chair of Save Our Security Coalition. In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Flemming the Medal of Freedom in recognition of his peerless dedication to his country.

About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is the Navy's full-spectrum corporate laboratory, conducting a broadly based multidisciplinary program of scientific research and advanced technological development. The Laboratory, with a total complement of nearly 2,500 personnel, is located in southwest Washington, D.C., with other major sites at the Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Monterey, Calif. NRL has served the Navy and the nation for over 85 years and continues to meet the complex technological challenges of today's world. For more information, visit the NRL homepage or join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

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