Matthew Garrett
Director of the Innovations and Partnerships Office
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is focused on solving some of America’s hardest problems with breakthrough science and technology. We take the nation’s investments seriously, and we work to turn them into outcomes that matter—moving innovation from the Laboratory into real-world impact. Those breakthroughs not only strengthen national security, they also help keep the United States economically competitive by advancing cutting-edge industry through partnerships and collaboration.
The annual R&D 100 Awards recognize new commercial products, technologies, and materials available for sale or license and are judged on novelty, impact, and real-world application. In other words, they reward innovation that is not just claimed but proven. The Laboratory received four 2025 R&D 100 Awards—bringing our total to 186 and reflecting how the Laboratory delivers in combining scientific excellence with a clear path to use.
As this issue of Science & Technology Review (S&TR) shows, innovation moves faster when partnerships connect the right people, expertise, and facilities, and when we treat technology transfer as a core part of mission delivery. Take monolithic telescopes. Space does not forgive misalignment or fragile designs, and the systems we send must perform through radiation, thermal swings, and the forces of launch. Monolithic optics, permanently aligned by combining lens and mirror elements into a single fused-silica optic, cut down failure points, improve stability, and deliver more robust performance under high-acceleration loads. Those advantages matter most when they are validated in mission settings. Demonstration flights with NASA and the U.S. Space Force, along with ongoing collaborations with Firefly Aerospace, True Anomaly, Optimax Space Systems, and others show what it looks like when national security, civil space, and commercial timelines reinforce one another.
Now consider FIDDLE, the flexible imaging diffraction diagnostic for laser experiments at the National Ignition Facility. FIDDLE can capture multiple x-ray diffraction frames in a single shot, which addresses a persistent challenge in high-energy-density science: getting more high-quality data from experiments that are inherently constrained. FIDDLE is also a great example of partnership inside the mission, where instrument builders, facility operators, and user communities co-design around shared needs for precision, repeatability, and maximum insight on nanosecond timescales. In that environment, collaboration is foundational to scientific credibility and mission confidence.
IDEA, the in-air drop encapsulation apparatus, highlights how scale changes everything. IDEA enables production of capsules that rapidly solidify while preserving the liquid core, which creates a new path to commercial viability for laboratory-developed microcapsules. IDEA provides a scalable approach using diverse, high-performance polymers, and it enables encapsulation of reactive or bioactive core solutions at unmatched rates. Co-developed with Purdue University, IDEA is a strong example of how academia and Department of Energy national laboratories can complement each other to build platforms that can move into pharma, energy, and manufacturing with meaningful throughput and economic impact.
MetaLitho3D, the metaoptics-enabled large-scale 3D nanolithography platform, shows what can happen when we aim partnerships at the constraints holding an entire field back. Wafer-scale, two-photon lithography has long been limited by conventional optical systems. By using more than 100,000 high-contrast metalenses and a spatial light modulator, MetaLitho3D increases 3D nanofabrication rates by a factor of 1,000 while maintaining high resolution. Microelectronics, biomedicine, energy, and information technology communities all benefit when the platform is interoperable with existing workflows, supportable at scale, and positioned for high-volume production.
The research highlights in this issue further show how the Laboratory continues to invest in tomorrow’s cutting-edge breakthroughs: from a brain-on-a-chip testing platform, developed through a series of Laboratory Directed Research and Development program investments, to a new approach using fiber-optic cables as seismometers for earthquakes. Both technologies hold the potential for real-world impact and continue the Laboratory’s legacy of scientific innovation.
This edition of S&TR clearly shows that innovation and partnership—grounded in a commitment to mission—strengthen every breakthrough we deliver. As director of Lawrence Livermore’s Innovation and Partnerships Office, I am honored to lead the Laboratory’s technology transfer mission, pleased to introduce the features on this year’s R&D 100 Award–winning technologies, and excited for the industry-shaping innovations still ahead.
