Argonne wins two technology transfer awards from the Federal Laboratory Consortium

Argonne’s Cecilia Gentle also earns ​“Rookie of the Year” award in technology commercialization.

Staff from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have received two awards from the Federal Laboratory Consortium that recognize their contributions to Argonne’s technology transfer efforts.

“Research underway at Argonne and across the national laboratories to accelerate the transition of scientific discoveries to commercial applications significantly contributes to the Department of Energy’s mission,” Argonne Director Paul Kearns said. ​“By partnering with industry and other institutions to deploy pivotal breakthroughs and transformative innovations, we are advancing U.S. prosperity and security.”

Principal Electrical Engineer Jason Harper, Senior Innovation and Commercialization Manager Hemant Bhimnathwala, Director of Commercialization Ilya Kats and Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Mark Langguth earned an Excellence in Technology Transfer award for their roles in a partnership with electric vehicle charging company EVmatch.

Because there are more than two million legacy electric vehicle (EV) chargers in use that are not able to connect to the internet to make use of ​“smart charging” technology, Harper and his fellow Argonne researchers developed a handheld, universal adapter that retrofits older, standalone EV chargers to become ​“smart chargers.”

In 2023, Argonne licensed the technology to EVmatch, which has made the adapter commercially available. The partnership contributes to viability and adoption of EVs, which will help reduce carbon emissions in the coming years.

Argonne Innovation and Commercialization Manager Cecilia Gentle earned the Rookie of the Year award, which recognizes a federal laboratory employee who has demonstrated exceptional work in the past year despite being relatively new to the technology transfer profession.

In 2023, Gentle, a former materials chemist, assumed responsibility for supporting technology transfer activities in Argonne’s Applied Materials division. She helped to develop an innovative deal structure to enable the licensing of Argonne-developed electronic waste processing technology to two materials recycling companies and facilitated a five-party cooperative research and development agreement consisting of two national labs, two major corporations and a technology startup company.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.