Publications

Sandia National Laboratories is charged with working on tough technical problems on behalf of the nation. As Sandia's sole discretionary research and development (R&D) program, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) funds foundational, leading-edge R&D that nurtures and enhances core science and engineering capabilities, supports national security missions, and creates new capabilities. Sandia's LDRD program is an essential element of the Laboratories' purpose to provide "exceptional service in the national interest'

This document is the Annual Report for Sandia National Laboratory in 2016.

Sandia's research strategy arises from its laboratory strategy and is organized through program elements known as Investment Areas, each of which is focused on discipline- or mission-based research priorities set by upper management. The LDRD program elements mirror this structure.

This report summarizes progress from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program during fiscal year 2014. In addition to the programmatic and financial overview, the report includes progress reports from 419 individual R&D projects in 16 categories. Information for 176 projects in their final year is presented in a more comprehensive format, while for those 243 in their pre-final years, only an abstract is presented herein.

Total energy calculations and scanning tunneling microscope (STM) image simulations were conducted in an effort to interpret new experimental images of CO and H adsorbed on the closepacked surface of ruthenium metal. The images are remarkable in suggesting that the adsorbed species are intermixed, plausibly accounting for the superior catalytic activity of this metal in forming hydrocarbons. Insight was gained over the short duration of the project, but a more accurate method of simulating images will be required before contact between theory and experiment points to a final result.

Science historian James Burke is well known for his stories about how technological innovations are intertwined and embedded in the culture of the time, for example, how the steam engine led to safety matches, imitation diamonds, and the landing on the moon.1 A lesson commonly drawn from his stories is that the path of science and technology (S&T) is nonlinear and unpredictable. Viewed another way, the lesson is that the solution to one problem can lead to solutions to other problems that are not obviously linked in advance, i.e., there is a ripple effect. The motto for Sandia's approach to research and development (R&D) is 'Science with the mission in mind.' In our view, our missions contain the problems that inspire our R&D, and the resulting solutions almost always have multiple benefits. As discussed below, Sandia's Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program is structured to bring problems relevant to our missions to the attention of researchers. LDRD projects are then selected on the basis of their programmatic merit as well as their technical merit. Considerable effort is made to communicate between investment areas to create the ripple effect. In recent years, attention to the ripple effect and to the performance of the LDRD Program, in general, has increased. Inside Sandia, as it is the sole source of discretionary research funding, LDRD funding is recognized as being the most precious of research dollars. Hence, there is great interest in maximizing its impact, especially through the ripple effect. Outside Sandia, there is increased scrutiny of the program's performance to be sure that it is not a 'sandbox' in which researchers play without relevance to national security needs. Let us therefore address the performance of the LDRD Program in fiscal year 2003 and then show how it is designed to maximize impact.

Abstract not provided.

This report summarizes progress from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program during fiscal year 2001. In addition to a programmatic and financial overview, the report includes progress reports from 295 individual R and D projects in 14 categories.

This report summarizes progress from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program during fiscal year 2000. In addition to a programmatic and financial overview, the report includes progress reports from 244 individual R and D projects in 13 categories.