July 08 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine

Kudos

Gonzales named director's executive office manager

Peggy Gonzales is the new executive office manager for the Director's Office. Gonzales has been at the Lab for 27 years, most recently as chief of staff in the Weapons Engineering Directorate.

Gonzales joined the Lab as a group secretary in the Physics Division. Since January, Gonzales has been acting executive office manager for the Director's Office and was officially offered the position by Director Michael Anastasio in May.

Lujan Center, West Virginia University garner EPSCoR Award

The Lujan Center at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and West Virginia University received an Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Award from the Department of Energy for their joint project, "Hydrogen Absorption in Pd-based Nanostructures." EPSCoR is a federal-state partnership program designed to ensure that America remains the world leader in scientific research and innovation, and to encourage research that will help meet the nation's energy needs through increased competition in energy-related research and development.

Henson receives three grants and fellowships

Kriste Henson of the Decision Applications Division received an Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship from the United States Department of Transportation, a Geography and Regional Science Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation, and a Doctoral Dissertation Grant from the University of California Transportation Center.

Henson also is a doctoral student in the geography department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose research in modeling and simulation resolution has important applications for homeland security.

Tech Transfer 2007 award winners recognized

More than 300 outstanding researchers recently were recognized by the Technology Transfer Division. In fiscal year 2007, the Laboratory produced 159 invention disclosures. Laboratory patent attorneys submitted 106 patent application filings, and Laboratory researchers received 46 patents overall.

This year's Distinguished Patent Award went to Dipen Sinha of Sensors and Electrochemical Devices. Tim Germann of Theoretical Chemistry and Molecular Physics received the Distinguished Copyright Award.

Distinguished Postdocs recognized

Michael Demkowicz of Structure/Property Relations, Ki-Yong Kim of the Center for Nanotechnology, and Pinaki Sengupta of Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory recently received the Laboratory's Postdoctoral Distinguished Performance Award, which recognizes outstanding and unique contributions by Lab postdocs that result in a positive and significant impact on the Laboratory's programmatic or scientific efforts or status in the scientific community.

The postdocs were recognized at a ceremony last month and will present their work at a Director's Colloquium scheduled for July 8. Read about their work and more about the award in the Daily NewsBulletin.