Two Sandia inventions named among the year's best

DECON FOAM -- Sandia scientist Maher Tadros displays his Discover Award-winning decontaminating foam for neutralizing chemical and biological agents. (Photo by Randy Montoya) Download 300dpi JPEG image, 'Tadros.jpg', 626K (Media are welcome to download/publish this image with related news stories.)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Two technologies developed at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories have been selected to receive Discover Awards for Technological Innovation by Discover magazine, the magazine's editors announced today.

The awards -- dubbed the "Academy Awards of Technology" by the contest's organizers -- are presented annually for the year's top inventions. A total of 19 awards are to be given this year, culled from more than 4,000 entries.

Inventors of one winning technology and one or two finalist technologies (runners-up) in each of eight categories will receive the awards during a June 24 gala at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.

Sandia's Maher Tadros will accept an award for development of a decontaminating foam for chemical and biological warfare agents (available now, see information at left). The foam is a finalist in the Humanitarian category. For more information and images, see http://www.sandia.gov/media/cbwfoam.htm.

Leo Mara of Sandia's Livermore, Calif., site will receive an award for conception of a mobile pothole patcher called the Rapid Road Repair Vehicle. The technology is a finalist in the Transportation category. See http://www.sandia.gov/media/pothole.htm.

The technologies are featured in the July 2000 issue of Discover.

Discover's editors this year also named a "Top 10" list from each of the eight categories. Three Sandia technologies were among those listed: the smart scalpel, Medicine; explosives detecting devices, Humanitarian; and haptic user-interface software, Computing.

This is the 11th year Discover has honored top innovators. Sandia technologies have earned several of the awards in past competitions. For more information, see http://www.discover.com.

Media contact:
John German, jdgerma@sandia.gov, (505) 844-5199