Berkeley Lab Wins Four Prestigious 2006 'R&D 100' Awards for Technology Advances.

(From AScribe)

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Four of R&D Magazine's prestigious R&D 100 Awards for 2006, the editors' choices for the 100 most significant proven technological advances of the year, have gone to researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their colleagues.

The 2006 award designees are:

- The Carbon Explorer, created by members of the Earth Sciences Division, working with colleagues at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and WET Labs of Portland, Oregon -- a free-drifting instrument that submerges to measure particulate carbon in the upper layers of the ocean and returns to the surface to report by satellite from the most remote regions of the globe;

- A High-Efficiency Multiband Semiconductor Material for Solar Cells, discovered and developed in the Materials Sciences Division -- a semiconductor alloy of zinc, manganese, and tellurium treated to have multiple band gaps, so that a single junction of the material may be able to convert virtually the full spectrum of sunlight to electrical current;

- The Laser Ultrasonic Sensor, developed by members of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, working with colleagues at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology -- a sensor and control system to ensure optimum paper quality and efficient use of trees, chemicals, and energy by measuring stiffness and shear strength as paper speeds through the production web;

- …