Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory engineer Christopher Spadaccini is one of 23 inaugural recipients of the University of California Regents Innovation Awards. He received a Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for "innovations that have led to long-term positive impacts on the lives of others and inspiring UC inventors and entrepreneurs."
"I'm very honored to receive this award and represent Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory," he said. "The accomplishments that led to this are only possible because of the hard work and ingenuity of many Lab researchers, leaders and external collaborators."
Spadaccini leads LLNL's Materials Engineering Division, overseeing a variety of materials and manufacturing activities and facilities including the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (AML), which he was instrumental in establishing. AML is a 14,000-square-foot facility in the Livermore Valley Open Campus, an unclassified innovation hub for collaborative projects.
His award citation noted that "he has developed more than 50 patented technologies to create new materials conventional manufacturing cannot achieve, such as materials that are both lightweight and exceptionally strong."
Spadaccini earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his 22-year LLNL career, he has led research in advanced additive manufacturing process development and architected materials. He also founded several LLNL fabrication laboratories for process development of micro- and nano-scale features and mixed-material printing. Spadaccini and his teams developed ideas that have led to impactful publications, a large intellectual property portfolio and significant LLNL programmatic impact over the last decade.
