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INEEL Honors 100 Inventors at the Annual Recognition Banquet

One hundred inventors were recognized for their patents and inventions at the eighth annual Inventors' Recognition Banquet held by the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory on January 30 in Idaho Falls.

The inventions offered technological advances in many areas, including environmental protection and cleanup, energy, medical research, industrial welding and more.

Three inventors were recognized for generating 10 or more inventions, while six inventors were inducted into the INEEL inventors “Hall of Fame” for creating five or more inventions.

An innovative way to spur performance, the INEEL "Hall of Fame" was established last year and includes public recognition and monetary awards based on levels of productivity. So far, INEEL has recognized 25 inventors who have amassed more than 150 inventions. Along with scientific and engineering peer recognition, inventors have earned about $117,500 in special awards from licensing agreements that provide royalty income.

Among the contributions recognized this year are a dozen patents for environmental technologies, more than half a dozen in energy technologies, research in selective cell destruction of AIDS virus, supercritical fluid coatings for fibers used in many products, and a new method of ultrasonic weld inspection, which is accomplished as the weld is made. These and many other patents have exceptional potential for application in health, manufacturing, environmental cleanup, national security, nuclear and fossil-fuel energy systems, renewable energy systems, and other areas.

The three decathlon-level lifetime achievers received special recognition and $10,000 each for their superb performances. They are Dennis Bingham, an accomplished researcher in liquid natural gas technologies; Joel Hubbell, who has been instrumental in subsurface probe and measuring equipment; and James "Buck" Sission, who partnered with Hubbell on probe and other equipment.

Among the six pentathlon achievers, who received $2,500, are:

• Brent Detering, who has five inventions, mainly in hydrogen, carbon, and fast reactor research methods
• Daniel Ginosar, who has five inventions, mainly in supercritical fluid research
• David Meikrantz, who recently rejoined INEEL and has five inventions, mainly in material separation methods
• John Svoboda, who has five inventions, mainly in agricultural materials research
• Arthur Watkins, who holds five inventions, mainly in measurement and materials development for fossil fuel systems, and
• Bruce Wilding, who has five inventions, mainly in fossil fuel systems research.

A very promising patent generated by William Keener and Thomas Ward may make significant contributions to understanding the AIDS virus and producing new treatments for it. Entitled “Selective Destruction of Cells Infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus,” this approach could be used in combination with existing therapeutic strategies to keep the AIDS virus in a state of remission more effectively. More testing and investigation is needed to determine its application and success.

Another promising patent reflects the collaborative efforts of Charles Allen, Mark Argyle, Robert Fox, Daniel Ginosar, Stuart Janikowski, David Miller, W. Alan Propp and William Toth. They earned two patents in Fiscal Year 2003 to enable a continuous process that uses supercritical fluids, instead of hazardous solvents to apply coatings onto fibers and filamentous materials. Among many potential applications are applying lubricating, water resistant, and protective coatings to poly/cotton threads and yarns, protective coatings to cables, abrasion-resistant visible coatings to fishing line, and protective or conductive coatings onto composite fibers. The second patent describes the equipment necessary to apply these coatings.

Quality control capabilities for welding operations in various industrial settings could benefit significantly from a patented technology that presents a method for ultrasonically inspecting the quality of an arc weld on a pass-by-pass basis, as the weld is being made. This technology permits inspection of welds at high temperatures without requiring a liquid couplant. It increases productivity of fabricating welds in products such as offshore oil and gas pipelines. Five people worked on this effort, including John Johnson, Eric Larsen, Karen Miller, Herschel Smartt and Timothy McJunkin.

This year, 100 inventors will be recognized representing 39 patents issued during fiscal year 2003. These patents represent the INEEL's continuing success in applying scientific solutions to meet the grand challenges of industry and government.

The patents generated during 2003 will benefit industries in such various fields as nuclear energy, agriculture, hydrogen fuel research and environmental cleanup.