Senior manager Todd Harrison, facing camera, hugs fellow Marines veteran and technologist John Bailon after John hands him a challenge coin. Labs Director James Peery, right, handed out coins alongside panel participants and veterans John Bailon, Geoff Bacon and Kevin Stielow at the conclusion of Sandia’s Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11, 2024. Learn more at bit.ly/4asedOX Photo by Craig Fritz

In support of two NASA missions, Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility harnessed the power of the sun to expose aerospace materials to intense heat, replicating the harsh conditions of faster-than-sound flight and atmospheric reentry. NASA materials engineer Milad Mahzari, front, and NASA project lead Keith Peterson examine the gas flow around their heat shield during the test. Learn more at bit.ly/3URICQ9 Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia geochemist Anastasia Ilgen, pictured, and her team have been pioneering an environmentally friendly method to separate rare-earth elements from watery mixtures. Here she works on a vapor sorption analyzer used for characterizing the chemistry of porous solids such as metal-organic frameworks. The team’s ultimate goal is to design sponges that selectively absorb one rare earth metal while excluding others. Learn more at bit.ly/3UhkXZt Photo by Craig Fritz

Scientist Dan Thrasher looks to his computer monitor while setting up an optical table at Sandia, where he is testing lasers in combination with barium ions to reduce drift in miniature atomic clocks, making them more accurate. Learn more at bit.ly/3ymkZaF Photo by Craig Fritz

The Generation 3 Particle Pilot Plant receiver sits on rails ready to be moved up to the front of the new tower at Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility. The receiver is double the size of the facility’s previous falling-particle receiver and represents a major step toward the commercial scalability of particle-based concentrating solar power. Learn more at: bit.ly/3yULvbn Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia’s four-channel, silicon photonic single-sideband modulator chip. This new modulator, measuring 8 millimeteres on each side and marked with a green Sandia thunderbird logo, is the centerpiece of a laser system on a microchip. Learn more at: bit.ly/4dtirXu Photo by Craig Fritz

As the hare learned from the tortoise, speed isn’t everything. Theoretical scientists at Sandia and Boston University have discovered that quantum computers are unrivaled at solving an advanced math problem. Unusually, they proved quantum computers are not faster than regular computers; instead, they use far less memory. Learn more at bit.ly/4eIbVgr Photo by Craig Fritz

Often, human resources is perceived as merely policies, processes and to-do items, but Sharron Harris and her team, who won one of five Labs Director Awards on May 15, 2024, are on a mission to transform Sandia’s benefits, the people-side of human resources. Learn more at bit.ly/4hlcIob Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia battery expert Melissa Meyerson works in a glovebox to setup a lithium-sulfur flow battery. These kinds of batteries have huge potential for being large, safe and in-expensive back-ups for a high-renewables grid. Learn more at bit.ly/3yVGjDz Photo by Craig Fritz

Keeping electrical circuits dry is generally considered a vital safety measure, but at Sandia’s High Performance Computing center, technicians adjust live circuits submerged in liquid. The immersion system uses a nonconductive liquid coolant that enables 100% of the heat generated to be captured. This direct contact between a liquid coolant and electrified equipment may reshape the future of data-center design. Learn more at bit.ly/4aKab2W Photo by Craig Fritz

Rio Rancho high school students look into an oven containing critical welding components as part of a job shadowing event organized by Sandia's Community Involvement team. Learn more at bit.ly/4afj7NR Photo by Craig Fritz

A group at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility cleans all the heliostats with a power washer, scrubbers and squeegees the morning before a critical test in an attempt to maximize the sun’s heat. Learn more at bit.ly/3PKqlRS Photo by Craig Fritz

Mikko Hautala, center, Finland’s ambassador to the U.S., asks questions of Sandia manager Ed Romero during a tour of the Superfuge. NNSA hosted a delegation from Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense on a tour of the facility in 2024. Photo by Craig Fritz

Postdoctoral researcher Caitlin McCowan adjusts a customized scanning tunneling microscope at Sandia. Not only can this machine capture images of atoms, but it can also manipulate them. Learn more at bit.ly/3TgpYRT Photo by Craig Fritz

A Sandia machinist sets up 3D-printed metal parts for a newly designed cable connector used for testing the W80-4. The new connector is the result of collaboration across the Labs. Learn more at bit.ly/3IyX6hf Photo by Craig Fritz

In preparation for a series of 300-foot blast tube proficiency tests, technologist T.J. King welds a portion of the tube on a September morning. Learn more at bit.ly/42llwWE Photo by Craig Fritz

A scientist places perovskite modules under LED lights that simulate the sun with a flash of light during a reliability test. Learn more at bit.ly/42llwWE Photo by Craig Fritz

Postdoctoral researcher Caitlin McCowan inspects pieces of silicon at the atomic level. She uses a scanning tunneling microscope to spot imperfections as part of a quantum research project at Sandia. Learn more at bit.ly/3TgpYRT Photo by Craig Fritz

A Sandia researcher holds up a prototype tamper-indicating device with colored speckles that make it near-impossible to counterfeit. The groundbreaking prototype using “bruising” materials doesn’t just detect tampering; the new device boldly displays the evidence, like battle scars, indicating attempts to access whatever is behind the device. Learn more at bit.ly/3T06HUt Photo by Craig Fritz