LIVERMORE, Calif. — A team of Sandia National Laboratories researchers working on the reactor at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility is testing materials to make the next generation of fusion reactors, in the quest to develop more carbon-free energy sources. These magnetic confinement fusion reactors, called tokamaks, use magnetic fields to shape plasma into a […]
Author Archives: Michael Langley
DOE funds pandemic tracking software
December 14, 2022 – 8:23 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — The Department of Energy has awarded $5 million to create tools to increase the nation’s level of preparedness for biological threats — including an infection rate tracking program for COVID-19 developed by a Sandia National Laboratories team in 2020. Jaideep Ray and Cosmin Safta developed an approach using publicly available data from states […]
Creating diamonds to shed light on the quantum world
September 20, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Diamonds are a scientist’s best friend. That much is at least true for physicist Andy Mounce, whose work with diamond quantum sensors at Sandia National Laboratories has earned him the DOE’s Early Career Research Award. As a scientist in Sandia’s Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, he specializes in making microscopic sensors to try […]
Dedication, curiosity earn chemist DOE Early Career Research Award
July 8, 2022 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — After earning a Department of Energy Early Career Research Award, Krupa Ramasesha plans to launch an in-depth study of how interactions of nanoparticles with light drive chemistry — possibly the first step in helping the nation end its dependence on fossil fuels. “The goal of my work under the early career award […]
Computer code may help speed up airport security
May 9, 2022 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Imagine moving through airport security without having to take off your shoes or belt or getting pulled aside while your flight boards — while keeping all the precautions that ensure the safety of passengers and flight crews. This is the challenge tackled by a team including researchers from Sandia National Laboratories — […]
New testing method yields pathway to better, longer-lasting batteries
December 2, 2021 – 8:12 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Using a microscopic method for measuring electrical potential, a team of scientists at Sandia National Laboratories may have discovered how to make a longer-lasting, more efficient battery. The team of Elliot Fuller, Josh Sugar and Alec Talin detailed their findings in an article published Oct. 19 in American Chemical Society Energy Letters. […]
High-speed alloy creation might revolutionize hydrogen’s future
September 20, 2021 – 8:39 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — A Sandia National Laboratories team of materials scientists and computer scientists, with some international collaborators, have spent more than a year creating 12 new alloys — and modeling hundreds more — that demonstrate how machine learning can help accelerate the future of hydrogen energy by making it easier to create hydrogen infrastructure […]
Sandia brings best cybersecurity minds to bear in national policy talks
August 23, 2021 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia hosted a series of virtual cybersecurity events, called Meetings of the Minds, to pull together the best thinking on how the nation should respond to changing threats. The first one was held Dec. 6, 2020, and the second on May 26. The first event brought together experts from Sandia; Bob Kolasky, the […]
Engineer at Sandia Labs turns error detection into ‘secret language’ for data security
August 9, 2021 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Research into software error detection has led one Sandia National Laboratories engineer to develop a method — it works like two friends who speak their own language — to enhance the protection of digital content like email and social media messaging. Celestino Corral is an electrical engineer who began working on error […]
Sandia gives awards, mentoring to local young women
June 3, 2021 – 8:34 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — A three-decade tradition connecting young Bay Area and northern California high school students with accomplished scientists at Sandia National Laboratories was not stopped by the COVID-19 pandemic. This spring, more than 70 students, parents, mentors and educators virtually attended the 30th Sandia Women’s Connection Math & Science Awards. Honorees were nominated by […]
After 40 years, Sandia’s Combustion Research Facility still driving toward the future
May 18, 2021 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — The weather on March 6, 1981, was nothing too remarkable for the San Francisco Bay Area — a little drizzle with temperatures in the 50s and fairly calm wind. The remarkable event that day was taking place on Sandia National Laboratories’ California campus, but even those who participated in the opening of […]
Airplanes to cellphones: New equipment finds the flaws in everything
February 17, 2021 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Tim Briggs has built a career at Sandia National Laboratories tearing and breaking things apart with his team of collaborators. Now, he’s developed a fracture-testing tool that could help make everything from aircraft structural frames to cellphones stronger. Briggs has filed a patent for a device associated with bonded structural composite materials […]
Material found in house paint may spur technology revolution
October 14, 2020 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — The development of a new method to make non-volatile computer memory may have unlocked a problem that has been holding back machine learning and has the potential to revolutionize technologies like voice recognition, image processing and autonomous driving. A team from Sandia National Laboratories, working with collaborators from the University of Michigan, […]
‘Magical’ mathematics unlocks engineering honor for Sandia scientist
October 9, 2020 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Tamara Kolda of Sandia National Laboratories has spent a career finding mathematical patterns in data sets ranging from mouse neurons to crime statistics, so when she talks about how ‘magical’ the results seem, even experts in other fields take notice. Kolda was one of 87 members elected to the National Academy of […]
Sandia helps safeguard biological data threatened during COVID-19 pandemic
October 6, 2020 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — A partnership between Sandia National Laboratories and the Boston firm BioBright LLC to improve the security of synthetic biology equipment has become more relevant after the United States and others issued warnings that hackers were using the COVID-19 pandemic to increase their activities. “In the past decade, genomics and synthetic biology have […]