Los Alamos receives Federal Tech Transfer award

Contact: David Lyons, davidlyons@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9198 (01-116)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 29, 2001 -- A consortium of federal laboratories has recognized the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory for its support of technology transfer and regional economic development.

The Mid-Continent Region of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer named Los Alamos as "Laboratory of the Year" for 2001. The FLC said in a statement that Los Alamos was recognized for "its visionary and critical support of the Los Alamos Research Park," a cooperative economic development effort involving Los Alamos County, the Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation, the Regional Development

Corporation, the Economic Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, DOE's Los Alamos Area Office, the Laboratory and the private sector.

The award is being presented Tuesday at a reception in Albuquerque. Thomas J. Meyer, associate director for Strategic Research at Los Alamos, will accept the award for the Laboratory.

Meyer said, "Los Alamos is pleased to be recognized by our peer laboratories for our efforts to enhance the transfer of technology to the private sector. I've enjoyed watching the transformation of the Los Alamos Research Park from a paper concept to an actual building with corporate tenants right across the street from the Laboratory."

The first building of the Research Park was dedicated in March 2001 and it currently houses personnel from Motorola, Compaq and the Laboratory, among others. The goal of the Research Park, which is owned and operated by the LACDC, is to encourage regional economic development by fostering collaboration among private sector parties and members of the scientific community at the Laboratory. Future plans for the park include construction of additional structures capable of housing a total of 1,500 researchers.

The FLC's Dana Moran said, "In its support of the Research Park, the Laboratory and its Director, John Browne, are recognizing the importance of the private sector to the strategic mission of the Laboratory and visibly demonstrating their support of technology transfer and regional economic development."

The FLC recognized Los Alamos for its role in the Research Park, attracting corporate partners to collaborative research and making the Laboratory's library and open computing systems available to other tenants.

The Laboratory's Research Park Project Leader Tony Beugelsdijk said, "The Research Park brings new opportunities for our scientists to work with commercial collaborators to transfer technology or to start new companies. The park has been enthusiastically received by Laboratory researchers."

The FLC, formally chartered by Congress in 1986 to promote and strengthen technology transfer activities, is a nationwide network of federal laboratories that strives to link laboratory-developed technologies and expertise with the private sector. More than 700 major federal laboratories and centers and their parent departments and agencies are FLC members. The Mid-Continent region of the FLC includes fourteen states and over 100 laboratories.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.