Life Sciences Division's Thomas Thundat Receives Discover Magazine Award

The Life Sciences Division's Thomas Thundat has received one of this year's annual Discover Magazine awards. Thomas won the humanitarian category for his Micromechanical Land Mine Detector, an instrument that could lead to a hand-held instrument to screen people and luggage at airports or to detect land mines.

The technology is based on miniature micro-machined silicon cantilevers one-tenth the width of a human hair that can detect tiny explosions. The device, which boasts parts-per-trillion sensitivity, works by absorbing TNT molecules given off by explosives. As the semiconductor material absorbs the TNT and is heated with power from a simple battery, the TNT molecules undergo tiny explosions that are detected by an optical beam.

The Discover Awards for Technological Innovation, says the magazine, "honor the unsung technological heroes whose creative genius improve the quality of our everyday lives and alert us to what lies ahead in thefrontiers of human achievement and ingenuity." Thomas's award is one of only 19. He'll accept it later this month at the Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.