INL News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 12, 2016
NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
Laura Scheele, 219-381-8672, [email protected]
IDAHO FALLS — Idaho National Laboratory celebrated its 20th Annual Research and Development Ceremony tonight. The ceremony honored more than 140 inventors, researchers and technicians.
The event highlighted achievements in 2015, including the receipt of 27 newly issued patents and seven copyright assertions. Lab employees were honored for their efforts to produce advances that may be used by U.S. government agencies and licensed for commercialization in various markets.
“Moving research and development from the laboratory to market is a vital part of securing our nation’s critical infrastructure and deploying nuclear energy solutions and other clean energy options,” said INL Director Mark Peters. “Industry engagement and commercialization of technologies developed at the lab increases our impact, delivers a significant return to taxpayers and makes the world cleaner and safer. Congratulations to those honored Friday. I appreciate your dedication and hard work.”
For 2015, the recipients of these awards are:
- Outstanding Paper by Early Career Scientist or Engineer: Travis Grimes, Peter Zalupski and Leigh Martin for “Features of the Thermodynamics of Trivalent Lanthanide/Actinide Distribution Reactions by Tri-n-octylphosphine Oxide (TOPO) and Bis(2-ethylhexyl) Phosphoric Acid.”
- Outstanding Scientific Paper: Aaron Wilson and Christopher Orme for “Concentration dependent speciation and mass transport properties of switchable polarity solvents.”
- Lifetime Achievement Award for an INL Author: David Petti for more than 75 peer-reviewed journal articles and significant citation by others.
- Outstanding Innovation Award: Robert Schley and David Hurley for a tool that will help provide key information for validating new computational materials science models currently under development at INL.
- Outstanding Impact Award: Nikki Rasmussen, William Fuger, James Schondel, Margy Blackburn and Ryan Buxton for significant impact on a project that saves the lives of U.S. military and allied front-line military personnel.
In addition to recognizing patented inventions and copyrights, special recognition was given for three Laboratory Director’s Achievement Awards, Inventor of the Year and Technician of the Year. Recipients of these awards were honored for significant contributions in their research fields during 2015. The winners include:
- Assel Aitkaliyeva for Early Career Exceptional Achievement,
- Steve Hayes for Exceptional Engineering Achievement,
- Jian Gan for Exceptional Scientific Achievement,
- Jack Law for Individual Lifetime Achievement in Science and Technology,
- Kevin Gering for Inventor of the Year, and
- William Fuger for Technician of the Year.
