White House Honors
Early Career Scientists

Dernburg

Abby Dernburg, with the Lab's Life Sciences Division, recently received a "Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers" from the White House. The honor is the nation's highest for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Fifty-seven researchers were honored in a recent ceremony presided over by John Marburger, science advisor to the President and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Eight federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers at the start of their careers whose work shows the greatest promise to benefit the nominating agency's mission. Dernburg was nominated by the Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health. Full story.

Winning Business Plan Includes Lab Scientist

Environmental Energy Technologies Division scientist Sunghoon Kwon was part of a team that won second place in the recent UC Berkeley Haas School Business Plan Competition. Kwon's group developed Analog Micro Displays (AMD), which uses a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System, or MEMS-based projection system, to offer UXGA or HDTV resolution color imaging that consumes little power, is small and light, and costs a fraction of conventional projectors. AMD's first product can project a 4-foot-by-4-foot image and is aimed at the mini projector market. Full story.

Tech Transfer Award For Chem/Bio Response

(l to r) Lorenzetti, Thatcher, Price and Gadgil

The work of a team of Environmental Energy Technology researchers headed by Ashok Gadgil has been chosen to receive a 2004 Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer. The entry, entitled "Minimizing Casualties from a Chem/Bio Attack: Preparation, Training, and Response Resources," will be honored at the FLC's annual award banquet in San Diego on Wednesday. The prestigious award recognizes "laboratory employees who have accomplished outstanding work in the process of transferring federally developed technology to the marketplace." Go here for more information.

Western States:
Death By Climate

Mills

Forget talk of global warming and speculation of what it might do in 50 years, or 100. Here and across the West, climate change already is happening. Temperatures are warmer, ocean levels are rising, the snow pack is dwindling and melting earlier, flowers bloom earlier, mountain glaciers are disappearing and a six-year drought is killing trees by the millions. "What we're seeing is consistent with what we expect to happen under global warming," said Evan Mills, scientist at Berkeley Lab. "We will expect more beetle infestation, more drought, more wildfires." Full story.

Lab Spinoff in Running For 'Top 100' Tech List

Beneficiary Designation Should Be Done Online

The University of California recently announced that employees and annuitants can designate their beneficiaries online using the "At Your Service" web site.   Due to delays in processing, those who access the site will notice their beneficiary information is incomplete. Employees should designate their beneficiaries online for all benefit plans, including Life, AD&D and Business Travel even though they may have already submitted this information on a form. Go here for more information.