Fuentek Helps NASA Clients Win Three R&D 100 Awards

We were delighted to learn yesterday that the three R&D 100 Award applications we prepared for two of our clients—NASA’s Glenn Research Center and NASA’s Johnson Space Center—have been selected for this prestigious award.

The R&D 100 Awards, sponsored by R&D Magazine, are a big deal in the world of innovation. Since 1963, the awards have identified revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market. Many of these have become household names, helping shape everyday life for many Americans. These include the flashcube (1965), the automated teller machine (1973), the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the liquid crystal display (1980), the Kodak Photo CD (1991), the Nicoderm anti-smoking patch (1992), Taxol anticancer drug (1993), lab on a chip (1996), and HDTV (1998).

The winning technologies Fuentek helped submit for the R&D 100 Award are the High Altitude Hydration System (Johnson Space Center), the Inflatable Antenna Technology, and the Spring Tire (both from Glenn, which also won awards for two other technologies). These groundbreaking innovations join the ranks of winners from IBM, Toyota, Frito Lay, Intel Corp, and Siemens in being recognized as among the top 100 most technologically significant products introduced in the last year.

These technologies—and our clients—will be recognized at an award ceremony in November. We can hardly wait that long to celebrate their success—so in the meantime, check back for a series of posts about NASA’s winning technologies, as well as an upcoming podcast about why going after these types of awards is an important tool for technology transfer offices with regard to licensing and partnership activities.

–By Nannette Stangle-Castor