The R&D 100 Awards are a renowned worldwide science and innovation competition celebrated their 62nd year in 2024. Entries were received from 16 different countries, and RASEI Fellow Steven Spurgeon led one of the winning teams.
The Autonomous Electron Microscope (AutoEM) received the 2024 R&D 100 award! AutoEM is the result of nearly 7 years of hard work by a dedicated team of scientists, including Steven R. Spurgeon (NREL, formerly PNNL), Matthew Olszta, Sarah Akers, Kevin Fiedler, Derek Hopkins, Jacob Haag, Kayla Yano, Christina Doty, and Marjolein Oostrom (PNNL).
AutoEM embeds human-like reasoning into the control of electron microscopes, which are a cornerstone of the study of materials and chemical systems. Using AutoEM researchers can conduct reproducible, high-speed experimentation nearly 1000x faster than before. We’re excited for the possibilities that AutoEM will unlock, as well as ongoing commercialization efforts with JEOL-IDES, one of the world’s largest analytical instrumentation manufacturers.
The R&D 100 Awards, often referred to as the "Oscars of Innovation," are prestigious annual awards recognizing the 100 most technologically significant products, processes, materials, or software introduced to the market in the previous year. The awards, established in 1963, are open to submissions from around the world and are judged by a panel of experts based on technical significance, uniqueness, and usefulness. Winning an R&D 100 Award is a mark of excellence for innovators and their organizations, signifying the development of groundbreaking and commercially promising technologies.