News

Sandia Labs News Releases

Tag Archives: z machine

Sandia researcher wins career achievement award from Asian technical society

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers has selected Sandia National Laboratories materials scientist Hongyou Fan to receive its 2022 Career Achievement Award. “It is evident that you embody the reason SASE created this category, and we are proud to present you this award,” wrote the organization’s CEO and Executive Director Khanh […]

Truman and Hruby 2022 fellows explore their positions

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Postdoctoral researchers who are designated Truman and Hruby fellows experience Sandia National Laboratories differently from their peers. Appointees to the prestigious fellowships are given the latitude to pursue their own ideas, rather than being trained by fitting into the research plans of more experienced researchers. To give wings to this process, the […]

Setting gold and platinum standards where few have gone before

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Like two superheroes finally joining forces, Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine — generator of the world’s most powerful electrical pulses — and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility — the planet’s most energetic laser source — in a series of 10 experiments have detailed the responses of gold and platinum at […]

Four Sandia researchers win Presidential Early Career Award

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia researchers Salvatore Campione, Matthew Gomez, Paul Schmit and Irina Tezaur have received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for 2019. President Donald Trump announced the awards as the U.S. government’s most prestigious for early career scientist and engineers. PECASE includes $250,000 as research support over a five-year period […]

Three Sandia researchers elected fellows of the American Physical Society

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers Carlos Gutierrez, Alec Talin and Thomas Mattsson have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society. The honor is afforded each year to no more than one half of one percent of the members of the society. Talin, from Sandia’s California site, was honored “for the discovery of […]

Three Sandia engineers recognized for contributions to advancing women in STEM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Three Sandia National Laboratories engineers have been recognized by the Society of Women Engineers as part of its annual awards program for their support in the enrichment and advancement of women in engineering. Janet Williams won the Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes members who have made significant contributions to SWE for at […]

Black hole models contradicted by hands-on tests at Sandia’s Z machine

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A long-standing but unproven assumption about the X-ray spectra of black holes in space has been contradicted by hands-on experiments performed at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine. Z, the most energetic laboratory X-ray source on Earth, can duplicate the X-rays surrounding black holes that otherwise can be watched only from a great distance and then theorized […]

Dan Sinars represents Sandia in first energy leadership class

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Dan Sinars, a senior manager in Sandia National Laboratories’ pulsed power center, which built and operates the Z facility, is the sole representative from a nuclear weapons lab in a Department of Energy leadership program that recently visited Sandia. Members of the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program (OSELP) are up-and-coming leaders […]

Tritium introduced in fusion experiments at Sandia

More powerful fuel to boost Z Machine’s neutron output ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories Z Machine have opened a new chapter in their 20-year journey toward higher fusion outputs by introducing tritium, the most neutron-laden isotope of hydrogen, to their targets’ fuel. When Z fires, its huge electromagnetic field crushes pre-warmed fuel, […]

Sandia physicist Jim Bailey wins major physics award for 10-year study of the sun

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — By testing bits of iron at the temperature of the sun, Sandia National Laboratories physicist Jim Bailey and his team have provided key data to improve the Standard Solar Model, widely used by astrophysicists to help model the behavior of stars. For this work, Bailey will receive the American Physical Society’s annual […]

Thor’s hammer to crush materials at 1 million atmospheres

Sophisticated features may influence eventual Z-machine rebuild ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new Sandia National Laboratories accelerator called Thor is expected to be 40 times more efficient than Sandia’s Z machine, the world’s largest and most powerful pulsed-power accelerator, in generating pressures to study materials under extreme conditions. “Thor’s magnetic field will reach about one million […]

Sandia physicist accepts first joint faculty appointment with Washington State University

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories physicist Marcus Knudson is the first joint faculty appointee to serve both Sandia and Washington State University (WSU). In the position, Knudson will enhance fundamental research into the compression of materials under extreme conditions, using Sandia’s unique Z machine. “The science of dynamic material compression is a core capability […]

‘Iron Sun’ is not a rock band, but a key to how stars transmit energy

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Working at temperatures matching the interior of the sun, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have been able to determine experimentally, for the first time in history, iron’s role in inhibiting energy transmission from the center of the sun to near the edge of its radiative band — the section of […]

Sandia magnetized fusion technique produces significant results

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have produced a significant output of fusion neutrons, using a method fully functioning for only little more than a year. The experimental work is described in a paper to be published in the Sept. 24 Physical Review Letters online. A theoretical PRL paper to be […]

DOE Early Career award won by Sandia researcher Stephanie Hansen

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A $2.5 million, five-year Early Career Research Program award from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science has been won by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Stephanie Hansen for her fundamental science proposal to improve existing atomic-scale models for high-energy-density matter. Thirty-five winners were chosen by peer review from about 750 proposals […]