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Sandia Labs News Releases

Author Archives: Neal Singer

Nanomaterials researcher wins mid-career research award

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories materials scientist Hongyou Fan is the sole recipient of this year’s Mid-Career Researcher Award from the Materials Research Society, the largest materials society in the United States. The distinction is given midway in a researcher’s career for exceptional achievements in materials research and for notable leadership in the field. […]

Sandia spiking tool improves artificially intelligent devices

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Whetstone, a software tool that sharpens the output of artificial neurons, has enabled neural computer networks to process information up to a hundred times more efficiently than the current industry standard, say the Sandia National Laboratories researchers who developed it. The aptly named software, which greatly reduces the amount of circuitry needed […]

Engineered light could improve health, food, suggests Sandia Labs researcher in Nature paper

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — People who believe light-emitting diodes, or LEDS, are just an efficient upgrade to the ordinary electric light bulb are stuck in their thinking, suggest Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jeff Tsao and colleagues from other institutions in a Nature “Perspectives” article published in late November. “LED lighting is only in its infancy,” the authors write. […]

Quantum computing steps further ahead with new projects at Sandia

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Quantum computing is a term that periodically flashes across the media sky like heat lightning in the desert: brilliant, attention-getting and then vanishing from the public’s mind with no apparent aftereffects. Yet a multimillion dollar international effort to build quantum computers is hardly going away. And now, four new projects led by […]

Sandia microneedles technique may mean quicker diagnoses of major illnesses

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When people are in the early stages of an undiagnosed disease, immediate tests that lead to treatment are the best first steps. But a blood draw — usually performed by a medical professional armed with an uncomfortably large needle — might not be quickest, least painful or most effective method, according to […]

Friendly electromagnetic pulse improves survival for electronics

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, emitted by a nuclear weapon exploded high above the United States could disable the electronic circuits of many devices vital to military defense and modern living. These could include complicated weapon systems as well as phones, laptops, credit cards and car computers. Also in trouble might be […]

Six Sandia researchers appointed fellows

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Six Sandia National Laboratories researchers have been appointed to the extraordinary positions of Sandia Fellows. The new appointees, from a wide variety of backgrounds, include the first female and first Hispanic fellows, Katherine Simonson and Gilbert Herrera, respectively. In announcing the fellows, Labs Director Steve Younger wrote that the appointments recognize careers […]

Astra supercomputer at Sandia Labs is fastest Arm-based machine on TOP500 list

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Astra, the world’s fastest Arm-based supercomputer according to the TOP500 list, has achieved a speed of 1.529 petaflops, placing it 203rd on a ranking of top computers announced at The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis SC18 conference in Dallas. A petaflop is a unit of computing speed […]

Water use cut in half at federal lab in Colorado, thanks in part to Sandia

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories engineer has won a Department of Energy environmental award for helping halve the amount of water used to cool a high-performance computer data center in 2017 at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. David J. Martinez, engineering project lead for Sandia’s infrastructure computing services, received the […]

Large supercrystals promise superior sensors

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Using an artful combination of nanotechnology and basic chemistry, Sandia National Laboratories researchers have encouraged gold nanoparticles to self-assemble into unusually large supercrystals that could significantly improve the detection sensitivity for chemicals in explosives or drugs. “Our supercrystals have more sensing capability than regular spectroscopy instruments currently in use, just like a […]

Sandia computational researcher wins DOE Early Career Research Program award

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researcher Eric C. Cyr has received a 2018 Early Career Research Program award of $500,000 every year for five years to improve deep neural networks so they more efficiently combine experimental results with the most complex computer models. The national award from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science is […]

Sandia researcher Jeff Brinker elected fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jeff Brinker, Sandia National Laboratories fellow and University of New Mexico regents’ professor, has been elected fellow of the oldest learned society and independent policy research center in the United States: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The academy’s 1780 charter states its purpose is “to cultivate every art and science, […]

Arm-based supercomputer prototype to be deployed at Sandia National Laboratories by DOE

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Microprocessors designed by Arm are ubiquitous in automobile electronics, cellphones and other embedded applications, but until recently they have not provided the performance necessary to make them practical for high-performance computing. Astra, one of the first supercomputers to use processors based on the Arm architecture in a large-scale high-performance computing platform, is […]

Sandia computational mathematician named SIAM fellow

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories computational scientist and mathematician John Shadid has been named a 2018 fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Shadid’s selection by SIAM was based upon his research on solution methods for multiphysics systems, scalable parallel numerical algorithms and numerical methods for strongly coupled nonlinear partial differential equations, […]

Exascale Earth-modeling system is ready to make high-fidelity predictions for energy

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Earth modeling system developed over the last four years and unveiled Monday is expected to have one of the finest resolutions ever achieved by supercomputers simulating aspects of the planet’s climate, said Sandia National Laboratories researcher Mark Taylor, the project’s chief computational scientist. The Energy Exascale Earth System Model, E3SM, is […]