Tuesday, Jan. 19, 1999
Laboratory honors employees at first annual Patent and Licensing Awards Ceremony
Employees from the Laboratory were honored for receiving patents, copyrights or licensing income from their technologies last fiscal year during the Laboratory's first annual Patent and Licensing Awards Ceremony last Friday at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe. Pete Lyons, former director of the Civilian and Industrial Technology Programs Office now serving as science and technology adviser to Sen. Pete Domenici, was the keynote speaker.
One hundred and nine Los Alamos employees and 76 Laboratory associates were honored. In addition, some Laboratory employees and non-Laboratory personnel received Distinguished Patent, Copyright and Licensing awards and Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
"These distinguished award winners represent the 'best of the best,'" said Laboratory Director John Browne, who helped present some of the awards along with Lyons, CIT Program Office Director Charryl Berger and Bill Eklund of the Business Patent Law (LC-BPL) Office.
"They represent what it really means to go the extra mile to help the Laboratory and their Northern New Mexico neighbors, and they serve as an inspiration to other Laboratory employees to do the same," Browne added.
The Distinguished Patent Award honors patent recipients whose technologies exhibit outstanding innovation based on technical advancement, benefit of the invention to the Laboratory's mission and adaptability of the invention to public uses. Maxwell Sandford, Theodore Handel and Jonathan Bradley of Weapons Design Technologies (NIS-9) received the award for their patent called compression embedding, used for algorithms that modify data. Sandford, Handel and Bradley shared the $2,000 prize.
Tom Terwilliger of Structural Biology (LS-8) won the first-time Distinguished Copyright Award, which honors the author of disclosed copyrighted materials that are deemed extraordinary based on their potential commercial applications, programmatic impact and potential to enhance the reputation of the University of California and the Laboratory. Terwilliger won for his creation of SOLVE Version 1.0, a software that creates three-dimensional images of protein molecules. These pictures help firms in the biotechnology and health care fields design new drugs and engineer new enzymes for commercial use. SOLVE has been licensed to more than 155 government agencies, contractors, educational and nonprofit institutions, and four companies for commercial purposes. In recognition of his achievement, Terwilliger received a plaque.
The Distinguished Licensing Award honors the innovator(s) who have actively and effectively used the Laboratory's licensing program to license their technologies over the years. The recipient is selected based on the number of technologies licensed; the number of licenses issued per technology; the individual's promotion of his or her technologies; and the extent to which the individual actively engages in the licensing process, among other criteria.
This year's winner was Duncan MacArthur of Advanced Nuclear Technology (NIS-6). MacArthur has successfully licensed seven technologies: a Long-range Alpha Particle Detector, Alternating Current Long-range Alpha Particle Detector, Single and Double-grid Long-range Alpha Detector, Radon Detector, Fan-less Long-range Alpha Detector, Background Canceling Surface Alpha Detector and Event Counting Alpha Detector. MacArthur also received a plaque in recognition of his achievement.
Robert Stellingwerf of Hydrodynamic Methods (X-HM), former Los Alamos employees Stephen Coggeshall, John Davies and Camilo Gomez, and Bruce Hansen won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, also a first-time award, given to those who have successfully started and managed a Northern New Mexico business or contributed significantly to its development. Nominees may be current or former Laboratory employees or someone who received a license for a Laboratory technology.
They received the award for starting up the Center for Adaptive Systems Applications, an advanced analytical solutions company that applies emerging technologies such as adaptive modeling and genetic algorithms to perform multiple tasks, including credit card account performance prediction; scheduling for large processing centers; financial data flows fraud detection; and pattern extraction from signals and images.
Stellingwerf and his colleagues were chosen based on factors such as entrepreneurial risk taking; personal commitment; creative thinking and ingenuity; and high integrity. The recipients also were seen as role models in encouraging others to engage in entrepreneurial activities that contribute to the Northern New Mexico economy. They shared the $5,000 prize.
The event also included a poster display featuring some of the Laboratory technologies that successfully were licensed last fiscal year, and formally kicks off another year of licensing, copyrighting and patenting activities at Los Alamos and serves as an incentive to increase such activities. The Lab generated about $750,000 in royalty income in fiscal year 1998. The Laboratory also received 53 patents during this period, and currently has more than 70 active licenses.
--Ternel N. Martinez
UC Regents approve merit increases for DOE lab directors
The University of California Board of Regents met last Friday in San Francisco in a closed session. Among the issues the Regents acted on were merit salary increases for the directors and other senior managers at the three Department of Energy laboratories it manages; a lease agreement with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., a gift transfer agreement, the annual base salary rate for the vice chancellor of external affairs at UCLA and the new university counsel in the UC Office of the General Counsel. For more information, see the news release.
Bridges to be rebuilt near U.S. 84-285/NM 502 intersection
Laboratory employees who live in Española and normally travel on U.S. 84-285 and NM 502 to get to and from work will want to use an alternate route for the next several months because of ongoing construction.
A.S. Horner Construction of Albuquerque is rebuilding bridges near the intersection of U.S. 84-285 and NM 50, just north of the Cities of Gold Casino in Pojoaque.
The $4.5 million project is expected to be completed this fall, weather permitting, said Don Shanning of Proof Positive, an Albuquerque company that does public relations work on contract for the state Highway and Transportation Department.
The present bridge has reached its designed lifespan and coupled with increasing traffic volumes, needs to be rebuilt, Shanning explained. A portion of the southbound lanes of the bridge is complete; work is underway on the northbound lanes, he added.
Work through the construction area has reduced the posted speed limit to 35 miles per hour, and motorists traveling eastbound from NM 502 onto U.S. 84-285 will encounter delays and closed lanes, on occasion. These motorists also will have to yield to U.S. 84-285 motorists sooner than they normally would yield, Shanning added.
The state road agency is asking motorists who normally travel this route to use NM 30 as an alternate route, said Shanning. NM 30 intersects with NM 502 about 10 miles west of Los Alamos.
The state has placed flashing message boards on eastbound NM 502 asking motorists to use NM 30.
Shanning reminded motorists that the posted speed limit on NM 30 is 60 miles per hour, except in residential areas near Santa Clara Pueblo where the speed limit drops to between 40 and 45 miles per hour.
The contractor building the new bridges near Pojoaque won't work during peak traffic hours -- 6 to 8 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. -- but is scheduled to work on weekends. Flag persons and signs will alert motorists to the construction.
The highway department estimates that 40,000 cars travel U.S. 84-285 daily between Española, Los Alamos and Santa Fe, and traffic volume is projected to double to 80,000 vehicles a day in this so-called "Pojoaque Corridor" by 2015.
About 2,100 Lab employees and subcontract personnel live in Rio Arriba County; many of them travel U.S. 84-285 to work daily.
The Lab allows managers to use flex-time scheduling, but employees should plan on delays and adjust their schedules accordingly.
Employees and contract personnel interested in joining a vanpool can call 988-7433 or 294-5718.
--Steve Sandoval
Wellness Center sponsors Healthy Weight Week
The Laboratory's Wellness Center (ESH-2) is sponsoring Healthy Weight Week through Saturday with a number of exercise classes and presentations.
Included in the Wellness Center offerings is a six-week "Video and Popcorn" series beginning Wednesday, said Marta Gentry Munger of ESH-2.
From noon to 12:45 p.m. in conference room P280 of the Otowi Building, Laboratory employees can watch a 30-minute video called "Overweight and Obesity," then participate in a 15-minute question and answer session facilitated by ESH-2 staff, she said.
There is no preregistration and the series is free. Attendees should bring a sack lunch.
"Healthy Weight Week is a time to celebrate healthy lifestyle habits that prevent weight problems and last a lifetime," said Gentry Munger. She said a healthy weight outlook includes using positive self talk to increase self respect, optimism and acceptance of ones body.
People also should avoid weight-obsessive thoughts, stick to an eating pattern and tune in to their body's signals of physical hunger, she said. People also should recognize signs of stress and practice healthy coping strategies and live an active lifestyle that includes exercise and movement.
Other classes or presentations are scheduled at the Wellness Center including from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday in Room 106 at the center, where Lab employees can learn tips on how to stay active during cold winter months. The class will include topics such as nutrition, hydration, skin care and the limitations of exercise in the cold, said Gentry Munger.
Two presentations on metabolism also are being offered this month at the Wellness Center. "Men and Metabolism" meets from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday in Room 106 of the Wellness Center. In the class, men can explore strategies to help maintain or achieve a healthy body weight.
From noon to 1 p.m., Jan. 26, "Women and Metabolism" will explore the same strategies for women, said Gentry Munger.
Gentry Munger also reminded that ESH-2 will conduct free blood pressure screenings from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the lobby of the Otowi Building cafeteria. More information about the screenings is available by calling Anne Brown of ESH-2 at 5-1429 or 7-7839.
For more information about Wellness Center classes and services, call 7-7166. For more information on lifestyles that support healthy weight, see www.healthyweightnetwork.com online.
-Steve Sandoval
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