Sandia National Labs helps save taxpayers millions through smarter spending

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

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Sandia National Laboratories has helped save $439 million for the Department of Energy as part of the Supply Chain Management Center program. That’s more than any other DOE or National Nuclear Security Administration site. 

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Credit: (Picture courtesy Sandia National Laboratories)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is being credited with saving the Department of Energy $439 million as part of a more efficient way of doing business with suppliers. That’s more than any other DOE site nationwide.

The savings were facilitated through the Supply Chain Management Center, created by DOE in 2006 to improve supply chain efficiency and reduce costs. SCMC works with prime contractors to establish purchasing agreements that can be shared by multiple sites across the DOE complex. This eliminates the need for each site to negotiate individual contracts and secures volume pricing, early payment discounts, rebates and other cost-saving incentives.

“At Sandia, we take seriously our responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” said Labs Director Laura McGill. “This contract approach reflects our commitment to deliver on the Department of Energy’s mission as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

The program recently reached $2 billion in total savings since 2013, with $1 billion of that in the last five years.

“Collaboration is key. This achievement is proof of what happens when prime contractors work together for the benefit of the enterprise,” said Scott Bissen, senior director of SCMC.

Among the 26 DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration sites participating in the program, Sandia contributed the most total savings of 22%.

“We’ve been more successful because our management team and staff are passionate about it,” said Candice Montoya, procurement manager at Sandia. “We truly care about saving money and have built this process into our policies and procedures. It’s at the core of our organization.”

“These savings directly strengthen our national security mission,” said Louis Griego, director of Integrated Supply Chain Management at Sandia. “By managing resources wisely and partnering strategically, we ensure more funding goes to the science, engineering and innovation that matter most.”

Through the program, Sandia and the other participating sites have access to 117 established agreements with contractors that have strong reputations and good working relationships with DOE.

Each month, SCMC collects and analyzes purchasing data from prime contractors to calculate and report total cost savings. The center previously achieved $1 billion in enabled savings in 2020.

The Supply Chain Management Center works with 26 NNSA and DOE sites across the country and has 117 established agreements in place.

Credit

Graphic courtesy of the Supply Chain Management Center

 

Change your location to jumpstart creativity, study finds

Nobel prize winners innovated more quickly when they moved

Ohio State University

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – If you want to do your best, most creative work, moving to a new place – or working from several places – can accelerate the process, according to a new study of Nobel Prize winners.

 

Researchers found that Nobel laureates who moved more frequently began their prize-winning work up to 2 years earlier than did laureates who never moved. Those who worked in multiple locations started their innovative work up to 2.6 years earlier.

 

Top scientists who change their locations or split their time between locations boost their career by meeting other researchers with new and different ideas that they can combine with their own, said Bruce Weinberg, co-author of the study and professor of economics at The Ohio State University.

 

“They’re hearing interesting ideas at one place and different ideas at another location. They are putting these things together in novel, important ways,” Weinberg said.

 

“If they stayed in one place, it would take much longer to happen or may not happen at all.”

 

Weinberg conducted the study with John Ham, a professor of economics at New York University in Abu Dhabi, and Brian Quistorff of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The study was published today (May 12, 2025) in the journal International Economic Review.

 

Other research has focused on the importance of having clusters of top scientists at places like Silicon Valley or Cambridge, Massachusetts, to generate “knowledge spillovers” among a community of researchers who use what they learn from each other to advance science.

 

But this study takes a different approach, Weinberg said.

 

“You can be in one place with lots of brilliant people, but after a while, you’ve talked to all of them and you develop a common understanding of how things work,” he said.

 

“You’re less likely to come up with this great breakthrough unless you are exposed to a new set of ideas you haven’t heard before. You can do that by moving or working in several locations.”

 

The researchers used a rich dataset they helped build on Nobel laureates in chemistry, medicine and physics from 1901 to 2003. The dataset has the laureates’ locations each year and when each scientist started the research that eventually won them the Nobel prize.

 

 

The study findings estimated that moving to a new location every two years significantly decreases the time before beginning Nobel-prize winning work by two years. Moving every five years reduces the time by 0.7 years.

 

Being in multiple locations, as opposed to always being in one location, reduced the expected time before beginning Nobel-prize work by 2.6 years.

 

Being in multiple locations could include, for example, physicists who spent part of the time at their university, and substantial time at a research facility such as CERN.

 

The findings showed that 5% to 10% of the sample begin their Nobel work in the first year of their careers. However, many people take 10 or 20 years to start their Nobel work, and some take 30 or even 40 years.

 

“It’s not easy for a scientist to move their lab and work to a new location, but it can substantially boost their research,” Weinberg said.

 

The average time taken to start the prize-winning work remained remarkably constant from 1901 to 2003 and was constant across chemistry, medicine, and physics.

 

Sabbaticals for academics offer the possibility of being in new or multiple locations. Estimating the impact that having a sabbatical has on a researcher's output would be interesting, the researchers said.

 

“For someone who might have taken 10 years to begin their prizewinning research if they stayed in one place, moving every two years could reduce that time by nearly a quarter. That is substantially accelerating their innovations,” Weinberg said.

 

He emphasized that this study only examined a specific subset of Nobel Prize winners. However, he said the findings could well apply to other scientists in fields where creativity is needed to succeed.

 

“Many scientists work the same way as our study's chemistry, medicine, and physics researchers. They can benefit by moving to new places and being exposed to new ideas,” Weinberg said.

 

“I think the same might even be true of great painters and artists and anyone in a creative domain – their genius is coming up with novel ideas and expressing them in novel ways. And it helps to move and meet others with different ideas.”

 

He said it is also possible that being in a new place can inspire creativity beyond the effects of meeting new people, although this study can’t address that question.

 

“Going off into a completely different environment, a new context, might help creative people think in new ways,” Weinberg said.

 

However, the study clarifies that moving or working in different places is the key.

 

“You’re more likely to come up with that great new idea if you move around, meet new people, have new experiences, encounter new ways of thinking,” Weinberg said.

 

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research, the National Bureau of Economic Research and the John Templeton, Ewing Marion Kauffman, and Alfred P. Sloan Foundations.

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Journal

International Economic Review

DOI

10.1111/iere.12768 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Recombinant Innovation, Novel Ideas, and the Start of Nobel Prize–Winning Work

Article Publication Date

12-May-2025

 

Sustainable method produces high-purity material for use in green hydrogen production

Work carried out at a FAPESP-supported research center uses light and glycerol to eliminate unwanted compounds resulting from the reaction of these materials with organic molecules.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

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The study was conducted as part of Bruno Leuzinger da Silva’s doctoral research

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Credit: CINE

A group of researchers affiliated with the Center for Innovation in New Energies (CINE) has developed a method for purifying materials that is simple, economical and has a low environmental impact. The scientists have managed to improve the efficiency of a film that can be used in some green hydrogen production processes.

Known as mullite-type bismuth ferrite (Bi₂Fe₄O₉), the material has been used as a photoelectrocatalyst in the production of hydrogen by photoelectron oxidation, a process in which molecules of water or biomass derivatives are oxidized using sunlight as an energy source. The role of bismuth ferrite films in this process is to absorb light and drive the electrochemical reactions that “separate” the hydrogen from the original molecules (water, glycerol, ethanol, etc.).

However, the performance of these photoelectrocatalysts has been limited in the production of hydrogen due, among other factors, to the presence of unwanted compounds in the material itself, known as secondary phases. Now, research carried out by CINE members in the laboratories of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil has brought a solution to the problem: a purification method that has managed to eliminate these unwanted compounds.

“The process significantly improved the material’s performance in the photoelectron oxidation of organic molecules,” says Pablo Fernández, professor at UNICAMP and co-author of the article reporting the discovery in the journal Electrochimica Acta.

CINE is an Engineering Research Center (ERC) supported by FAPESP and Shell; the research was conducted within its Advanced Energy Storage Division, based at UNICAMP, one of the four research divisions that make up the center.

“Although we’re still far from adequate performance for application in a real system, and several other aspects need to be improved, this is an important step towards the production of a cheap and sustainable material with applications in the production of green hydrogen and water purification [among others] by photoelectrochemical methods,” adds the scientist.

Luck favors the prepared

The study was conducted during Bruno Leuzinger da Silva’s doctoral research at UNICAMP’s Institute of Chemistry, under the supervision of Professor Ana Flávia Nogueira, also a member of CINE and co-author of the article. The student was testing the performance of bismuth ferrite films in the oxidation of glycerol molecules, with the aim of producing green hydrogen, when he observed that the material changed over time.

Later, detailed studies revealed the reason for the changes: when the material interacted with glycerol and light, it spontaneously purified itself. Finally, tests carried out on the purified films showed that they were better at producing hydrogen.

Based on this discovery, the team formulated the photoelectrochemical purification method published in the scientific article. In this method, the material to be purified is placed in contact with glycerol. When it is exposed to light, certain electrochemical reactions take place between the material and glycerol, and the secondary phases disappear.

The process basically uses electricity, light and glycerol, a renewable, biodegradable, non-toxic compound that is widely available as an abundant by-product of biodiesel production.

This discovery opens up opportunities for the development of high-purity, efficient and low-cost materials that can be used to drive various photoelectrochemical reactions that are important for applications such as the sustainable production of fuels and raw materials and the treatment of wastewater.

In addition to CINE, FAPESP participated in the work by supporting three other projects (20/04431-0, 21/02678-0 and 23/02929-9). The research also received funding from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Shell and strategic support from the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).

About FAPESP

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration.

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Journal

Electrochimica Acta

DOI

10.1016/j.electacta.2025.145852 

Article Title

Photoelectrochemical Bi2Fe4O9 phase purification – Removing the phase Bi2O3 from Bi2Fe4O9/Bi2O3 thin films

 

Measles virus detected in Houston wastewater before cases were reported

Baylor College of Medicine

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An innovative outbreak detection program that tracks disease-causing viruses in wastewater identified the measles virus in Houston samples collected in early January 2025, before cases were reported. The team that developed the program, which includes researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, the School of Public Health at University of Texas Health Science Center – Houston, the Houston Health Department and Rice University, published their findings in the American Journal of Public Health.

The researchers detected the virus in wastewater using a sequencing-based approach, a highly sensitive and specific method that analyzes genetic material. This strategy might have broad implications for public health, particularly as a sentinel surveillance system to detect viruses before widespread outbreaks occur. The findings are relevant and timely as measles cases are increasing in Texas and the rest of the country and the study offers a promising strategy to get ahead of potential outbreaks.

“In 2023, we showed that systematically sequencing the genetic material in wastewater reveals dynamic changes in human viruses circulating in a community. Importantly, analyzing these viral changes in wastewater can improve our understanding of outbreaks and transmission and inform public health preparedness, just as one uses meteorological data to better understand and predict weather patterns to anticipate potentially dangerous conditions,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Anthony Maresso, Joseph Melnick Endowed Chair and Professor in Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor.

In the current study, the researchers reported that their wastewater surveillance program detected the measles virus in samples collected on Jan. 7 in two Houston water treatment facilities serving more than 218,000 residents. A parallel investigation confirmed on Jan. 17 the measles virus in two travelers residing in the same area serviced by the sampled water treatment plants.

“In such cases our next step is always validating the signal with a second method, and we were able to do so through a collaboration with the Houston Health Department and Rice University,” said co-first author Dr. Sara Javornik Cregeen, assistant professor in the Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research at Baylor. “They tested for the virus presence in samples from the same date and collection site and confirmed the signal using another technique, PCR.”

“As a reference, the 821 Houston wastewater samples we sequenced from the same area were negative for measles virus in the previous 31 months,” she added.

“Because no other cases have been reported and the detections occurred in the same area where the travelers resided, it is reasonable to assume that the measles signal detected in wastewater is from the two infected cases, which underscores the high sensitivity of the method,” Maresso said.

“With lessons learned from the Houston measles detection event, we are now working with our public health partners to gather data on the current measles outbreak in West Texas. Although not reported here, our program has been monitoring measles in wastewater from those sites as well, hoping the information can help officials get ahead of this virus,” said co-first author Dr. Michael Tisza, assistant professor of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor.

Currently, the researchers are not detecting measles viruses in wastewater in Houston but are detecting it in West Texas cities. The team continues to record the weekly activity of possible concerning viruses and report the results in the first of its kind sequencing-based health dashboard that is publicly available at https://tephi.texas.gov/early-detection.

Dr. Eric Boerwinkle, dean of the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and co-corresponding author, said that “This work underscores the ability of sophisticated wastewater analyses to serve as an early detection system benefitting public health, healthcare and communities in preventing a measles outbreak in Houston.”

He goes on to remind us that “The best protection from contracting the measles virus is the MMR vaccine, which has been shown to be safe and effective.”

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Journal

American Journal of Public Health

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2025.308146 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Human tissue samples

Article Title

Sequencing-Based Detection of Measles in Wastewater: Texas, January 2025

Article Publication Date

8-May-2025

 

Sunlight-powered system mimics plants to power carbon capture

Cornell University

 

Sunlight-powered system mimics plants to power carbon capture

ITHACA, N.Y. – Current methods of capturing and releasing carbon are expensive and so energy-intensive they often require, counterproductively, the use of fossil fuels. Taking inspiration from plants, Cornell University researchers have assembled a chemical process that can power carbon capture with an energy source that’s abundant, clean and free: sunlight.

 

The research could vastly improve current methods of carbon capture – an essential strategy in the fight against global warming – by lowering costs and net emissions.

 

In the study, researchers found that they can separate carbon dioxide from industrial sources by mimicking the mechanisms plants use to store carbon, using sunlight to make a stable enol molecule reactive enough to “grab” the carbon. They also used sunlight to drive an additional reaction that can then release the carbon dioxide for storage or reuse. It’s the first light-powered separation system for both carbon capture and release. Graduate student Bayu Ahmad is first author.

 

“From a chemistry standpoint, this is totally different than what anybody else is doing in carbon capture,” said senior author Phillip Milner, associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. “The whole mechanism was Bayu’s idea, and when he originally showed it to me, I thought it would never work. It totally works.”

 

The researchers tested the system using flue samples from Cornell’s Combined Heat and Power Building, an on-campus power plant that burns natural gas, and found it was successful in isolating carbon dioxide. Milner said this step was significant, as many promising methods for carbon capture in the lab fail when up against real-world samples with trace contaminants.

 

“We’d really like to get to the point where we can remove carbon dioxide from air, because I think that’s the most practical,” Milner said. “You can imagine going into the desert, you put up these panels that are sucking carbon dioxide out of the air and turning it into pure high-pressure carbon dioxide. We could then put it in a pipeline or convert it into something on-site.”

 

Milner’s lab is also exploring how the light-powered system could be applied to other gasses, as separation drives 15% of global energy use.

 

“There’s a lot of opportunity to reduce energy consumption by using light to drive these separations instead of electricity,” Milner said.

 

 

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Carbontech Development Initiative and Cornell Atkinson.

 

For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story.

 

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Journal

Chem

 

Energy from the depths of the Earth: Collaborative research project studies temperature-induced change of rocks in geothermal reservoirs

Geothermal energy as a major driver in the energy revolution / German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy provides funding for research on small-scale processes in rocks for deep geothermal reservoirs

Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

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Kick-off meeting of the TRIGGER project on the Gutenberg campus: (fltr) Dr. Hagen Deckert (igem), Professor Miriam Christina Reiss (JGU), Professor Virginia Toy (JGU), Professor Boris Kaus (JGU), Dr. Eva Wellmann (MaP), Professor Jörg Renner (RUB), Manuela Richter (Project Management Jülich), Dr. Stephen Michalchuk (JGU), Dr. Joyce Schmatz (MaP), Dr. Hugo Dominguez Carranza (JGU), and Dr. Min Zhang (RUB)

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Credit: photo/©: Valentin Koßmann / TRIGGER

Geothermal energy can make a decisive contribution towards the energy revolution in Germany while supporting the changeover from the use of fossil to climate-neutral energy resources. However, to ensure widespread public acceptance, it is essential to reduce associated risks, such as the triggering of earthquakes, as far as possible. A new research project led by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) will investigate the impact of changes in deep geothermal reservoirs caused by contact between hot rock and cold water. "We want to understand the effect of thermally induced fracture formation on mineral rock properties, such as permeability and strength, which may have an influence on the amount of thermal water that can be extracted and also on seismicity – although we are mostly unaware of the minor induced earthquake activity," explained Professor Miriam Christina Reiss of Mainz University, who coordinates the new joint project on "Formation of fractures and changes in permeability in geothermal reservoirs caused by thermally induced stress changes" (TRIGGER). The project is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and started in April 2025.

At Mainz University, a total of four research groups are involved in TRIGGER. Professor Reiss's Volcano Seismology group collaborates with the Tectonics and Structural Geology team headed by Professor Virginia Toy, Professor Boris Kaus' Geodynamics group, and the Metamorphic Processes group led by Professor Evangelos Moulas. Other partners in the research collaboration include the Institute for Geothermal Resource Management (igem) of the Institute for Innovation, Transfer, and Consulting (ITB) in Bingen, Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), and the Microstructure and Pores GmbH (MaP) in Aachen. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy will provide a total of roughly EUR 2 million, with some EUR 1 million earmarked to fund the groups at JGU. The Mainz-based researchers will mainly contribute to establishing the microstructural and microchemical composition of samples, to the analysis of rock deformation, and to the mathematical modeling of fluid flow and fracture processes.

Understanding fundamental processes to discover options for a more efficient exploitation of natural hot water reservoirs

Deep geothermal systems exploit natural hot water reservoirs at depths of more than 1,500 meters that can be used to generate electricity and heat. Moving down towards the interior of the Earth, the temperature increases by an average of 3 degrees Celsius for each 100 meters. In order to make use of this geothermal heat, hot water has to be extracted. Once the heat has been used, the cooled water is then returned back into the depths. The difference in temperature can be used to generate energy. In the Upper Rhine Graben rift system, the temperature gradient variation is even as much as 5 degrees Celsius for each 100 meters so that exploitable geothermal layers lie at a depth of 3 to 5 kilometers. This presents cost-effective resources as the layers are readily accessible and can supply large amounts of heat. "Geothermal energy is an important option here in Rhineland-Palatinate, particularly in view of the fact that the Upper Rhine Graben rift system is close by," said Reiss. At present, the typical temperatures of injected water are in a range around 70 degrees Celsius. Further reduction of this temperature could result in a greater yield of heat and improved productivity. However, the new TRIGGER project will first investigate the effects of such a reduction on subsurface rocks.

Laboratory trials followed by computer-generated modeling

The contact between cold water and much hotter rock can cause the rock to fracture and change its porosity and permeability. This could influence potentially induced seismicity. Such small-scale processes result in local changes to the properties of rock that, in turn, can influence the large-scale characteristics of thermal reservoirs. The TRIGGER research project thus aims to ascertain exactly what happens during these small-scale processes. "With this in mind, we will be examining drill core samples obtained at depths of up to 3 kilometers. We will analyze their thermal, mechanical, structural, and chemical properties," explained Reiss. In order to simulate the corresponding processes for better understanding, the samples will be subjected to various experiments, such as deformation by the injection of cold water into heated samples. The researchers will use sensors to detect whether and at what point the material fractures.

Moreover, the lab trials will be replicated in the form of computer models to gain greater insight into the occurring processes over a more extensive range of rock characteristics and temperatures. "We will be able to perform experiments in the lab that would not be possible in the field", said Reiss. "Our approach will enable us to understand the ongoing processes in more detail and also to uncover options for a more efficient exploitation." One of the goals of the joint research project is thus to determine the long-term effects of temperature fluctuations of at least 100 degrees Celsius on fracture formation and on the interaction between injected liquid and rock.

Research is being conducted to determine with more precision the risk of induced seismicity, i.e., the risk of earthquakes caused by human activity. "The public in general is more open to the use of geothermal energy today than in previous decades. It is our goal to acquire a better scientific understanding of the associated natural processes to be able to reduce the potential risks of geothermal heat exploitation," concluded Reiss. The geothermal power plant at Insheim in the Vorderpfalz region of Rhineland-Palatinate has been supplying green electricity for 10 years now. Furthermore, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate is currently planning other geothermal-related projects designed to obtain heat, for example in Speyer and Wörth am Rhein.

New insights into subsurface structures

Miriam Christina Reiss was appointed Junior Professor for Volcano Seismology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in August 2023. It was during her education degree in English and Physics that she discovered her interest in geophysics during an academic exchange in New Zealand. She was awarded a doctorate in Seismology / Geosciences by Goethe University Frankfurt in 2017, subsequently held a postdoc position at Yale University, and was entrusted with a research project funded by the German Research Foundation at Goethe University. Through her research, Professor Miriam Christina Reiss aims to extend the knowledge of volcanoes and their subsurface structures. Her investigations in the field of geothermal energy are intended to enable more effective assessment of the framework conditions for this form of power generation and, in particular, of the associated risk of earthquake activity.

 

Related links:

• https://www.geosciences.uni-mainz.de/seismology/ – Volcano Seismology group at the JGU Institute of Geosciences
• https://www.geosciences.uni-mainz.de/ – Institute of Geosciences at JGU