ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Materials scientist Nic Argibay and health and safety senior manager Rafael Gonzalez were honored at the 31st annual Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference by Great Minds in STEM, a nonprofit organization that recognizes Hispanic leadership and achievement in science, technology, engineering and math. Argibay received a Most Promising Scientist or Engineer […]
Category Archives: Materials Science
Older posts | Newer posts
National Hispanic science and engineering organization honors two Sandia researchers
October 22, 2019 – 5:00 am
Engineering success by predicting failure
October 16, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Since people started forging and working with metal, they’ve arguably been interested in how it breaks. But only since the 1950s have scientists and engineers had a mathematical framework for using laboratory measurements of material failure to predict a structure’s resistance to cracking. “These tools work well for brittle materials, such as […]
Thwarting oil-pipeline corrosion by identifying a nanoscale villain
June 6, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Steel pipes rust and eventually fail. To preempt disasters, oil companies and others have created computer models to predict when replacement is needed. But if the models themselves go wrong, they can be modified only through experience, a costly problem if detection comes too late. Now, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, the […]
Mirage software automates design of optical metamaterials
March 27, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New software lets users design science-fiction-like materials with the same efficiency that architects draft building plans. Watch a preview of Mirage, software developed by Sandia to make optical engineering (relatively) easy. The cubes in the video are blueprints of meta-atoms, nanosized building blocks that give metamaterials their distinctive, unusual properties valued for […]
Friendly electromagnetic pulse improves survival for electronics
December 6, 2018 – 5:00 am
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 […]
Quantum research gets a boost at Sandia
October 24, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Department of Energy has awarded Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories $8 million for quantum research — the study of the fundamental physics of all matter — at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies. The award will fund two three-year projects enabling scientists at the two labs to build advanced tools for […]
Small business recycling ventures propelled by Sandia engineering
September 27, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Along Route 66 in rural, eastern New Mexico is a defunct ethanol plant in Tucumcari. Still hanging inside the building, calendars from 2010 mark the year it closed, and six massive fermentation tanks — each one 35 feet tall and 55,000 gallons — sit empty. Drought has depleted local corn harvests that […]
Most wear-resistant metal alloy in the world engineered at Sandia National Laboratories
August 16, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If you’re ever unlucky enough to have a car with metal tires, you might consider a set made from a new alloy engineered at Sandia National Laboratories. You could skid — not drive, skid — around the Earth’s equator 500 times before wearing out the tread. Sandia’s materials science team has engineered […]
Large supercrystals promise superior sensors
August 1, 2018 – 5:00 am
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 light mixer generates 11 colors simultaneously
June 28, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A multicolor laser pointer you can use to change the color of the laser with a button click — similar to a multicolor ballpoint pen — is one step closer to reality thanks to a new tiny synthetic material made at Sandia National Laboratories. A flashy laser pointer may be fun to […]
Sandia’s robotic work cell conducts high-throughput testing ‘in an instant’
June 11, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Today with 3D printing you can make almost anything in a matter of hours. However, making sure that part works reliably takes weeks or even months. Until now. Sandia National Laboratories has designed and built a six-sided work cell, similar to a circular desk, with a commercial robot at its center that […]
International corrosion society elects first Sandia fellow
June 4, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A decade ago, while studying potential corrosion of containers for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, Sandia National Laboratories materials scientist David Enos designed an intricate solution to a sticky problem. Computer simulations showed the likelihood of unusually high heat and humidity deep inside the repository. Temperatures would rise […]
A splash of detergent makes catalytic compounds more powerful
May 30, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Researcher David Rosenberg examines images of a white powder under a powerful scanning electron microscope. Up close, the powder looks like coarse gravel, a heap of similar but irregular chunks. Then he looks at a second image — the same material produced by colleague Hongyou Fan instead of purchased from a catalog […]
First 3-D printed wind-blade mold, energy-saving nanoparticles earn Sandia national awards
April 25, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has won the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer’s national 2018 Technology Focus Award for designing the first wind turbine blades fabricated from a 3-D printed mold, which could dramatically shorten the time and expense of developing new wind energy technology. The labs also won FLC’s Excellence in Technology […]
‘Impactful Times’ tells story of decades of Sandia shock physics research
October 17, 2017 – 9:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Mark Boslough and Dave Crawford of Sandia National Laboratories predicted the Hubble telescope could see a rising plume as comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter in 1994. Their prediction, however, went against the prevailing thought that the impact would be a visual fizzle since it would happen on the planet’s far side. […]