Sandia Earns Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Awards

Paul Hommert has been named 2013 Laboratory Director of the Year by the FLC for his support of technology transfer activities at Sandia. The FLC said the award recognized the excellence of work during 2012 by Hommert, Sandia’s president and laboratories director, and the entire Sandia tech transfer program.

The blue structure is a stylized CST. The magenta spheres are radiocesium ions in water and are being preferentially taken up by the CSTs over the green sodium ions.

The FLC also honored Sandia and UOP, a Honeywell company, with the 2013 Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer for their work in bringing an innovative radioactive waste cleanup technology to the private sector. ECIS researchers Tina Nenoff (Nanoscale Science Dept.) and Jim Krumhansl (now retired) demonstrated that crystalline silico-titanates (CSTs) could capture radioactive cesium in seawater, establishing the key performance data on CSTs the led to the license. Bianca Thayer (Business Development Dept.) and Mark Rigali (Geochemistry Dept.) led the business and licensing discussions with UOP and Bianca closed the deal on the license agreement. The technology is being used in the Fukushima clean-up effort.

“Dr. Hommert has been a strong advocate for the overarching Department of Energy strategic objectives calling for innovation to strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness and improve the quality of life through science and engineering breakthroughs,” said Jackie Kerby Moore, Sandia’s manager of Technology and Economic Development and the labs’ representative to the FLC.

Read the Sandia news release.