Sandia National Labs FY20 LDRD Annual Report

FY20 ANNUAL REPORT

2020 Federal Laboratory Consortium Impact award rooted in LDRD Sandia secured four Federal Laboratory Consortium Tech Transfer awards in 2020, ranked as some of the most prestigious honors for federal laboratories and industry partners. The Impact award has its roots in a Sandia LDRD project focused on detecting biological and chemical threats. The Trak Male Fertility Testing System is based on Sandia’s SpinDx portable lab-on-a-disc diagnostic technology. Former Sandia inventor Greg Sommer realized there could be multiple commercial applications for SpinDx technology, so he pursued Sandia’s Entrepreneurial Separation to Transfer Technology program. He was joined later by former Sandia inventor Ulrich Schaff, and the two started Sandstone Diagnostics, a company that specializes in producing medical products and research tools to improve health care. They continue to refine and develop the technology in Trak, which they now call CentriFluidics.

Prestigious Fellowships, Appointments and Memberships Sandia Fellows and Senior Scientists

At Sandia, outstanding researchers from across technical fields can be appointed to the position of Fellow or Senior Scientist. Appointment as a Sandia Fellow recognizes a career of significant accomplishment for the Labs and for the nation. Fellows help to inform strategic directions and serve as ambassadors to organizations such as DOE, other government agencies, academia, and technical societies. Likewise, Senior Scientists, with their wealth of exceptional technical experience and broad mission impact, act as trusted advisors on technical topics and influence change at Sandia. Fellows are provided with LDRD funding allowing them to invest in strategic research projects and develop outstanding talent. In FY20, Lab Fellows and Senior Scientists helped to define and direct the COVID-19 response and winnow the outstanding ideas submitted by new and experienced researchers at the Labs.

Susan Seestrom named American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow

Susan Seestrom , associate laboratories director for Advanced Science and Technology and CRO at Sandia, was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science by her peers – and is only the fourth presently active Sandia scientist to have that distinction. The physicist was cited “for her pathbreaking work in nuclear physics, especially using ultra cold neutrons, and her leadership, both in her [physics] community and at national laboratories.” Seestrom, who oversees Sandia’s LDRD program, envisions enhanced agility. “We need to be able to move our research resources quickly, as we did for a problem like the COVID-19 global pandemic,” she said.

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LABORATORY DIRECTED RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT