Over the years, one question that keeps popping up is why I decided to work for a National Lab, as opposed to a university or industry. My first answer to this question, which is
“because John Travolta once told me that without a job, residence or legal
tender, I will be a bum” does not seem to lead to satisfaction. So, here is the alternate answer.
When I first came to a National Lab, I really had no idea
what a Lab did versus these other
entities. I had heard the origin story
(the Manhattan project), seen the big, unique, expensive facilities (the synchrotron sources
and the nano-centers) and knew the names of the many of the scientists in the complex
as leaders in their field. But it took a
few years of being at a Lab (after I got past the “do not become a bum” phase)
for me to really understand their critical role in scientific innovation.
At its core, scientific discovery has become hard. The days of the inventor who tinkered on
something in the garage and discovered the next big battery breakthrough are
long gone, unless you are developing battery apps.
The “low hanging fruits” have all been picked. The world still needs new discoveries
leading to better technologies; so we have had to, and will continue to, go
higher and higher up the proverbial tree.
National Labs were/are built to satisfy this need. In my opinion there are three aspects to a
national lab, the first two being: (i)
take a bunch of smart scientists and engineers from diverse disciples who are willing to
dedicate their life, working as a team, to solve a problem, and (ii) provide
them with the means to build unique facilities (think big $$) and capabilities
(think brains), unlike any other in the world.
Do this long enough that this combination will yield new breakthroughs,
new insights, Nobel prizes, and the rest of the good stuff. And out of this mix emerges the thought leaders
who define the next phase of innovation and set the path for what will be
the future.
In the age when the great industrial research labs are all
long gone, this role takes on an even greater importance.
But there is a third aspect to a National Lab which, in my
opinion, is equally important. We are
taxpayer funded and have an obligation to help the taxpayer in whatever way we
can. Which means that it is not enough
to develop (i) and (ii) and then keep it behind closed doors, with an insular
approach to problem solving. Rather, our
mandate is to use said facilities and capabilities to help the broader community gain further knowledge, aid in their quest to discover new things, win
their Nobel prizes, and serve as a means of enabling new products that will
drive the next big market.
But there is lack of understanding among the larger science
and technology community about this aspect of Labs. This is especially true for companies. For one, we at the Labs do not do a great job
of explaining what we have and the breadth of our capabilities. There is a translation problem between a Lab
scientist explaining a new technique and a company scientist understanding how
that technique can solve a battery problem.
And then there is confusion about the ways to even work with
the labs. Companies often don’t realize
that they there are well-established mechanisms to work with Labs, that protection
of IP and confidentiality are built into these relationships, and that the Labs
actually WANT companies to work with them.
A decade ago, during the cleantech boom, I was able to
witness this issue firsthand. As
companies started investing more into commercializing new technologies, the
translation problem became an obstracle in leveraging the assets in the National
Labs to effectively move forward. Since
those days, I have been passionate about finding ways to solve this
problem.
In June 14th, we are embarking on another part of
the journey to solve the translation problem with, what we are calling, “Battery
Industry Day at Argonne”. On that day,
we will open up the door to industry (and others) to show you what we have,
both the people and the facilities, tell you a bit about what we do, hear from
you on what issues you face, and introduce you to the various mechanisms we have
to work with outside entities.
We will talk about three areas where Argonne has deep expertise:
high-energy batteries used in everything from cell phones to EVs, stationary
storage and its integration with the grid, and batteries for our national security
needs.
You can read a bit more about the day and register at this site. Ping me with any questions.
Venkat
