DOE researchers in 12 facilities across the country won 36 of the 100 awards given by R&D magazine for 1996 work. DOE award-winning research ranged from advances in supercomputing to the biological recycling of tires. Announced in July 1997, these awards bring DOE's R&D 100 total to 453, the most of any single organization and twice as many as all other government agencies combined.

Two genome-related research projects sponsored by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Office of Energy Research, received R&D 100 Awards:

* Richard Keller and James Jett (Los Alamos National Laboratory) with Amy Gardner (Molecular Technologies, Inc.): "Rapid-Size Analysis of Individual DNA Fragments." Speeds determination of DNA fragment sizes, making DNA fingerprinting applications in biotechnology and other fields more reliable and practical.
* Edward Yeung (Ames Laboratory): "ESY9600 Multiplexed Capillary Electrophoresis DNA Sequencer." Allows simultaneous use of multiple capillary tubes for DNA sequencing and has potential for significantly lowering the cost and increasing the speed of gene sequencing.

R&D began making annual awards in 1963 to recognize the 100 most significant new technologies, products, processes, and materials developed throughout the world during the previous year (http://www.rdmag.com/rd100/100award.htm). Winners are chosen by the magazine's editors and a panel of 75 scientific experts in a variety of disciplines. Previous winners of R&D 100 Awards include such well-known products as the flashcube (1965), antilock brakes (1969), the automated teller machine (1973), the fax machine (1975), digital compact cassette (1993), and Taxol anticancer drug (1993).