RanTom Thoughts/20070704 Red Letter Day

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Guess who's a winner of an R&D100 award for 2007?

Argonne has now released their press release, so the embargo is lifted and I can now officially announce this. --Tometheus-sig.png Tometheus (talk) 10:33, 8 August 2007 (CDT)

Red Letter Day

R&D 100 Award!

OK, today's July 4th, a red-letter day on the calendar, but it's been a red-letter week for me this week. I've been stumbling around in a daze all week since I found out what I'm going to share today. This is huge! I mean, gigantic, enormous, so incredible terribly huge in my life that I've been scared to share it in case it wasn't true or I was dreaming. However, now I have a copy of the fax and it's finally starting to sink in on me that it's really happening. Now I can share it with everyone else. (Also I've been holding off due to something else that happened this week.. see below.)

I am one of the winners of an R&D 100 award!

(Along with my 3 other co-inventors of course.)

That just totally amazes me even a week later.

For those who aren't in R&D, let me explain. This is huge! I mean, gigantic, enormous, so incredible terribly huge in my life that ... oh wait, we've been there already. This is as big as it gets for someone in R&D. This is something that most people don't get in entire lifetimes. It's not hyperbole when the Chicago Tribune calls it "The Oscars of Invention" [1]. (I mean, I'm going to have to actually rent a tux and all.) Short of getting a Nobel Prize, this is as good as it gets -- and the Nobel Prize doesn't really cover the "D" side of Research and Development.

The Passive Millimeter Wave Spectrometer for Remote Chemical Detection that you submitted[2] in the 2007 R&D 100 awards program has been selected by the independent judging panel and editors of R&D Magazine as one of the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace in the last year. [3]

One of the 100 most technologically significant inventions in the last year -- in the entire world. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that.

This is how the DOE's Office of Science describes the award [4]:

Widely recognized in industry, government, and academia as a mark of excellence for the most innovative ideas of the year, the R&D 100 Awards are the only industry-wide competition rewarding the practical applications of science.
The R&D 100 Awards recognize the most promising new products, processes, materials, or software developed throughout the world and introduced to the market the previous year. Awards are based on each achievement's technical significance, uniqueness, and usefulness compared to competing projects and technologies.

I'm still trying to grasp that they're talking about the invention I worked on. I mean, all we did was take existing ideas and apply them in completely new ways, what's so special about that?? ;) They must have really liked the video I made for the submission or something. :) (Yes, that's my voice.)

Now I'm starting to get congratulatory e-mails and the Office of Technology Transfer at Argonne has told us to go through them for all of the details. They will pay for the awards dinner, the extra plaques, presentations, etc. The official awards banquet will be at the Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier in October. (Black Tie Formal, which means I will need to rent a monkey suit.)

The only downside is that now there's nobody around here with whom I can share the excitement. (Other than co-workers, of course.)

You are immediately free to announce to the media your selection as an R&D 100 winner -- There is no embargo.

Discuss!

--Tometheus-sig.png Tometheus (talk) 20:42, 4 July 2007 (CDT)


Notes

  • It looks like OTT will pay for the banquet for me + 1 guest and a personal plaque. (That's a $750 package, not including photos and posters, etc.) Now to just find 'guest' :D --Tometheus-sig.png Tometheus (talk) 09:48, 6 July 2007 (CDT)
  • Argonne has now released their press release, so the embargo is lifted and I can now officially announce this. --Tometheus-sig.png Tometheus (talk) 10:33, 8 August 2007 (CDT)
  • Since I didn't have any romantic interests lined up and had to turn in the name this week, I invited Jana to go as 'guest'. It gives her a chance to visit her grandmother (who recently had a stroke) while she's here. Also, I have to say, she looks better in a dress than Magnus or my other friends, no offense intended ;) ) --Tometheus-sig.png Tometheus (talk) 14:31, 8 August 2007 (CDT)


Strange week all around

This last week has just been a strange week all around for me.

  • Previous week: I found out that I'm going to have to go on half-time until the end of the fiscal year at Argonne due to our project's funds running dry sooner than we expected. (150 hours of senior staff time was charged to the project for someone not involved in it.)
  • Tuesday: Left cel-phone at work at Unilab
  • Wednesday: Mom went into the hospital, however, I was at Argonne, so I didn't have my phone yet.
  • Thursday:
    • ~9:30: Checked my messages, found out mom was in the hospital with severe bleeding.
    • ~9:40: Sami called from Argonne to tell me we won the R&D 100 award
    • 13:30: Finally got through to my mom and found out that the C word was being mentioned (Cancer)
    • 17:00 Went to deposit my paycheck and the machine ate my check without crediting me for it and wasn't able to return the check.
  • Friday: The bus I was returning home on was involved in an accident with a delivery van. However I did find a new route home.
  • Monday: I find out that Payroll at Argonne has returned my timecard due to insufficient funds on the project, but I finally saw the fax announcing our award.
  • Yesterday: I received a letter from the bank saying that I have to track down a copy of the check somehow and send it to them or have my boss stop payment and give me a new one. Nothing about them sending a technician out to the machine and actually investigating it since the machine still has the check in question, nooooo. That would be too customer friendly and logical, wouldn't it? Mom's news: The cancer biopsy came back negative and she can return home.
  • Today: 4th of July! Yay! Just heard from mom and she's home and OK, so now the partying can begin. (Later: I just found out I can see four different fireworks shows from the alley by my apartment. Cool!)
  • 'Tomorrow': (and the paycheck saga continues. Dr Siva gave me a duplicate check, but I was so absent-minded I left it in the copier after making copies for the bank.)

Discuss!


--Tometheus-sig.png Tometheus (talk) 20:42, 4 July 2007 (CDT)


External links

Press releases

After seeing the references on a couple of the articles, I got curious about tracking the source tree for the press releases. I wanted to see which sources were quoted most often, where the deepest branching was, etc. This is the result of that curiosity. The most referenced source is PR Newswire. (I suspect PR Newswire's source was EurekAlert, however, since that's where the DOE Office of Science's main newsfeed resides, and they copied the exact same title EurekAlert used.) The deepest nesting is currently MarketWatch and MSNBC.

I also have a media page set up for various TV, radio, and newspaper appearances.

Argonne News article
  • 2007.08.07 Argonne wins three R&D 100 awards (This was linked on the Argonne Homepage for a while.) (MCS News)
    ARGONNE, Ill. (Aug. 7, 2007) – Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory devised three of the world's top 100 scientific and technological innovations during 2006, as judged by R&D magazine.
    “Once again, DOE's labs are at the cutting edge of innovation with new technology developments to enhance America's economic and national security,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman. “My heartiest congratulations to the DOE researchers and scientists that have won R&D Magazine's prestigious awards this year.”
    Argonne Director Bob Rosner also offered his congratulations to the winning scientists. “These awards are a fitting tribute to scientific work of the highest rank, and a testament to the quality of research that happens every day at Argonne,” he said.
  • Same press release on:
  • MedicExchangeUSA mentions that Argonne got 3 awards but focuses on the mammography award.
Iran Daily
  • 2007.08.17 Iran Daily New Gas Detection Mechanism Developed (PDF) (Source: Mehr News Agency) A small blurb mentioning the invention, focusing on Sasan
    TEHRAN, Aug. 17--An Iranian researcher with the US Energy Department has invented a new gas detection mechanism using millimeter-wave spectroscopy.
    Sasan Bakhtiari has devised a gas detector which can identify chemical agents from long distances, Mehr News Agency reported.
  • 2007.08.27 Argonne News Argonne wins three R&D 100 awards (PDF) (The bi-weekly Argonne newspaper) The only place I've personally seen it in hard-copy so far, although the Iran Daily blurb probably gets the award for first place in print, but it doesn't mention me. This one has a picture of the Access Grid project. (See image above.)
  • Argonne Today (The daily Argonne employee e-mail.)
    • 2007.08.27 Award-winning technology could be used in war on terror. (The picture included is for another project and the link was to the Argonne Club calendar, not to an in-depth article, so a correction was posted the next day.)
    • 2007.08.28 correction. This one shows me in a suit and mentions my name! :D
    • 2007.09.12 Mentions our appearance in the various news outlets
    • 2007.09.13 Mentions the editorial in the Daily Herald
    • 2007.09.14 Mentions Sami's radio interview, pounding my server by including the link to my recording.
  • 2007.08.31 New instrument covertly detects signals from illicit chemicals (Featured article on the Argonne front page for the first weeks of September. It's a little spooky / thrilling to see a recording of my voice linked on Argonne's main page.)
    A new award-winning invention covertly detects chemical plumes at great distances and may help thwart future chemical or nuclear-based terrorist attacks. Other potential uses include detecting environmental pollution and determining tissue damage in burn victims without physical contact. More...
    • allamericanpatriots.com (Source: Argonne National Laboratory)
    • ChemistryTimes (Adapted from release by Argonne National Laboratory)
    • Daily Science News (Source: Argonne National Laboratory)
    • medGadget Passive Millimeter-Wave Spectroscopy (PmmWS) for Chemical Detection (Source: Argonne National Laboratory)
      Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory developed a new method to detect warm chemical gasses set before a cooler background environment. The advantage of the system is that it is passive in nature, and does not send out any signals to detect environmental chemical pollution. In addition, it does not have to receive any actual samples of the chemical gas, and therefore can be located at a distance from a potentially dangerous target being tested.
    • physorg.com (Source: Argonne National Laboratory)
    • WebWire (Source: Argonne National Laboratory)
    • CPST.net I'm in Chinese! (Google Translation)
Daily Herald article
  • 2007.09.11 Sami did a radio interview on WDCB. (It was broadcast in the morning and later in the evening)


R&D Magazine

R&D Magazine

  • The magazine is finally here! (We're under Environmental, right across the page from Lego Mindstorms NXT! How cool is that?)
  • 2007.10.08 10 Most Brilliant Inventions of 2007 (InventorSpot)
    We showed up at #4 on their list of the top 10 inventions in this year's R&D 100 list. (It was in the top 10 Diggs for that day.)


Article in Nuclear Engineering International

CNN

CNN appearance
  • 2007.12.24 CNN Reporter Jeanne Meserve interviewed us for a segment called "Preventing the Worst" aired Christmas eve. Unfortunately, they didn't use any of our actual interview or demo, but she does talk about the project (which is more than for a couple of other projects that are shown) and I actually show up for 2 seconds. See the video here. (The original was was up for a year on CNN.com, but no longer.)
  • A previous appearance of my name in Argonne News for the patent application for this project.
  • Not specifically related to this project, but I just found out that a previous article about our lab was slashdotted. I think this comment is slightly funny for my own reasons -- of course, he misses the Greek name at the beginning of the sentence. :) (I didn't realize my color version of the Chernobyl data was used in that article... You learn something new every day.)
  • In no way related, but I found out about Elmer Spectroscopy recently :)
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