Sandia LabNews

Cooling unit saves half-million gallons of water

A cooling unit installed on the roof of Sandia’s supercomputer center saved 554,000 gallons of water during its first six months of operation last year. The dramatic decrease in water use could be the model for cities and other large users employing a significant amount of water to cool thirsty supercomputer clusters.

Father, son bond over record-smashing roadster

For the past eight years, Sandia manager Joel Wirth has been working after hours in his home garage with his crew chief — his father, Jack Wirth, a retired Sandia electrical engineer. Together, they’ve built one of the fastest 1927 Model T roadsters in the world.

SunPower partnership sparks new solar module

Representatives from SunPower Corp., a leading U.S. solar manufacturer and global competitor, recently visited the New Mexico Regional Test Center, co-located with Sandia’s Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory, to inspect their company’s experimental PV system.

Secretary of Energy Achievement Awards

Sandians were members of several teams honored in November by then Energy Secretary Rick Perry in a ceremony at DOE headquarters. The teams received Secretary of Energy Achievement Awards, which recognize significant achievements by DOE employees and contractors.

Building Sandia: Late 1960s to mid-1990s

Building Sandia, Part 2, is the second in a series of three articles about the history of architecture at the Labs. Part 2 focuses on the functions and needs that drove the construction of buildings and facilities at the Labs from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.

Saving strangers

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network reports that there are currently 95,000 people on the national kidney waiting list. In 2019, Sandia data engineer Lawrence Allen became one of 355 living, anonymous donors who made that list move, joining a total of just 2,770 donors to date.