Sandia LabNews

Sandia researchers win five R&D 100 awards

Sandia inventions and co-inventions have captured five R&D 100 Awards for 2018. Competitors for the awards include an international pool of universities, corporations and government labs, and the sole criterion for winning is “demonstrable technological significance compared with competing products and technologies.” Since 1976, Sandia has earned a total of 124 awards. Read more to learn about this year's winners.

Larry Luna elected American Society of Mechanical Engineers fellow

Sandia engineer Larry Luna has been elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for significant achievements during more than 30 years of service and leadership. ASME fellows constitute about 3.5 percent of the organization’s more than 95,000 members. Larry was specifically recognized “for his contributions to the national security of the United States,” according to ASME.

2018 HENAAC Luminary Mark Rodriguez

Sandia materials scientist Mark Rodriguez has been presented with the Luminary Award at this year's Great Minds in STEM Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference. Luminary honorees are professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics who initiate, collaborate and lead key programs and research and make significant contributions to the Hispanic technical community as leaders and role models.

Rubber-powered world champ

Sandian Brett Sanborn holds two world records for F1D models of indoor rubber-powered aircraft, fragile lightweight flyers with the fuselage, tail boom, wing, stabilizer and rudder constructed from balsa wood and reinforced in different places with boron fibers.

Astra supercomputer at Sandia Labs is fastest Arm-based machine on TOP500 list

Sandia’s Astra is the world’s fastest Arm-based supercomputer according to the just released TOP500 list, the supercomputer industry’s standard. With a speed of 1.529 petaflops, Astra placed 203rd on a ranking of top computers announced at SC18, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, in Dallas.

Responders provide technical expertise in case of nuclear weapons accidents

The Accident Response Group provides technical expertise in assessing and safely resolving nuclear weapons accidents or "broken arrows." ARG brings together diverse experts from Sandia and other national labs, each with its own area of expertise. As the nuclear engineering lab, Sandia's focus is on the whole weapon.

Wind tunnel and lasers give nation a hypersonic proving ground

Sandia's hypersonic wind tunnel and advanced laser diagnostic technology are helping U.S. defense agencies understand the physics associated with aircraft flying five times faster than the speed of sound. With potential adversaries reporting successes in their own programs to develop aircraft that can be flown at Mach 5 or greater, U.S. development of autonomous hypersonic systems is a top defense priority.