Success Stories

Love Named Inventor of the Year

Lonnie Love

Lonnie Love of the Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division was named Inventor of the Year at the 2009 UT-Battelle Awards Night celebration.

One of ORNL’s most prolific researchers, Love was recognized for his numerous inventions and innovations in a variety of fields, including fluidics controls, biomedical robotics, and biogeneration of energy-related materials. His work could lead to advances in clean energy, energy efficiency, and human health and welfare.

In the past 5 years, Love contributed to 12 invention disclosures, resulting in six patent applications being filed with the U.S. Patent Office and five with DOE. Each of his innovations has the potential for significant impact.

• In mesoscale fluidics for prosthetics, orthotics, and rehabilitative biomedical systems, his work could lead to devices that significantly improve the lives of amputees and the disabled.
• In mesofluidics and hydraulics actuation, his inventions could be used to create robots and manipulators that can disarm unexploded land mines or improvised explosive devices, potentially saving many lives.
• In biosynthesis of nanoparticles through fermentation, his research has resulted in bacteria-generated material for quantum dots for use in photovoltaic cells, potentially making solar electricity much more economical and fully competitive with other energy sources, and for more efficient sources of light, saving energy. This process, through which Love and his ORNL colleagues can generate and precisely control the composition, size, and form of nanoparticles excreted by unique bacteria they discovered, was named by R&D Magazine as one of the top 100 new technologies and top 25 nanotechnologies of 2006.