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December 18, 2025

Laboratory Fellows present 80 years of science and engineering discovery

New visual project spotlights 20 major Los Alamos discoveries

Discoveries Feature 2
Mark Chadwick (left), then acting deputy director for Science, Technology and Engineering (DDSTE), tapped Laboratory Fellows to nominate some of the most significant advances that define the history of innovation at Los Alamos. Laboratory Fellow William Priedhorsky directed the project, and Gabriella Smith designed the displays. Credit to: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Breakthroughs and inventions made by Los Alamos researchers in nuclear science, materials, computing and algorithms, quantum, life sciences, space and more have been thoughtfully curated on a new public webpage and poster. Laboratory Fellows reviewed an extensive list of science and engineering achievements to select 20 major discoveries across eight decades.

Visit the webpage

Why this matters: The Laboratory Fellows hope that accomplishments of the past will inspire future scientists and engineers to contribute even greater accomplishments in the coming decades. 

Four big things: Here’s a quick preview of some of the Lab’s innovation history.

  • Plutonium science: The history of Los Alamos is intertwined with plutonium. Every advance in plutonium science either happened here or was inspired by this Laboratory.
  • Neutrinos: Los Alamos scientists detected the neutrino in 1956. Subsequent studies revealed its tiny mass and its oscillation between electron, muon, tau and possible sterile states.
  • Dynamic imaging: High-speed photography and X-ray and proton radiography are essential to looking deep into weapons-relevant systems. These tools, invented at Los Alamos, include the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) Facility and the Proton Radiography (pRad) Facility at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE).
  • The genome: Los Alamos invented the flow cytometer, a device to count, sort and identify individual cells. The Lab’s pioneering genome libraries led to the Human Genome Project and more.

LA-UR-25-32001

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