Advanced Manufacturing Lab wins tech transfer award

A trio of Lab employees and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have netted a national technology transfer award for their work in the creation of LLNL’s Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (AML).

The “best in class” award, from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Technology Transfer Working Group (TTWG), was presented Oct. 23 during a meeting in Augusta, Georgia, hosted by Savannah River National Laboratory.

The three award winners are Genaro Mempin, a business development executive in the Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO); Patrick Dempsey, director of Strategic Engagements for the Engineering Directorate; and Chris Spadaccini, director of the Center for Engineered Materials and Manufacturing.

Their “best in class” award was presented for the category of economic development.

“The AML represents a step in a new direction for establishing technology transfer relationships,” said Rich Rankin, the head of IPO. “The immediate success of the AML and the recipients demonstrates both the need for a new approach and the Lab’s ability to make it happen.

“The AML also represents a great partnership between different organizations within the Laboratory. People all came together to make the AML a reality. It’s a great story,” Rankin added.

Located in the unclassified research area of the Livermore Valley Open Campus, the 14,000-square-foot AML enables LLNL to expand research partnerships with industry, nearby Sandia National Laboratories/California, universities, student researchers and local businesses.

It is designed to permit shoulder-to-shoulder, collaborative research and development within a laboratory setting.

To date, eight partnerships with companies in the energy, security and manufacturing systems fields have been established, with more on the way.

In this first-of-its-kind collaboration center, industry researchers partnering with LLNL experts are free to share ideas and develop manufacturing innovations across workstations and wet labs while maintaining proprietary research within partitioned areas.

The Lab’s IPO developed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement specific to the AML that addresses industry intellectual property, confidentiality and potential equipment liability issues.

The TTWG awards, which were inaugurated in 2018, developed out of a desire several years ago to create an award to recognize technology transfer professionals.

The awards, selected by a team of representatives from the national labs and the DOE Office of Technology Transitions, are given in five categories — intellectual property management, licensing, partnering, economic development and innovative lab facilities.

This year’s award marks the second straight year that LLNL has won a TTWG “best in class” honor, with last year’s award coming for partnering for the development of the four-institution Accelerating Therapeutics for Opportunities in Medicine (ATOM) consortium.

“Winning our second best in class award serves as recognition for the outstanding work done by Lab employees in their efforts to fulfill the Lab’s technology transfer mission,” Rankin noted.