1980

• The nondestructive evaluation program is established at Ames Laboratory. The Lab is awarded a $4.6 million project to develop nondestructive evaluation techniques for aircraft by the Department of Defense.
• Lab scientists develop a liquid-junction solar cell that is durable, nontoxic and achieves record efficiency in tests.

Rick Schmidt (left) and John Wheelock examine a drop casting of a high-purity vanadium gallium alloy prepared in the Lab’s newly established Materials Preparation Center.

1981

• Ames Laboratory receives lead-laboratory status from the DOE for managing the environmental assessment of all processes of energy recovery from municipal, agricultural and industrial wastes, and from biomass.
• Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy continues to be the lead technique in trace metallic-element analysis. ICP-AES instruments are being manufactured at 12 companies throughout the world.
• The dismantling of the Research Reactor is complete, and the building is renamed the Applied Sciences Complex.
• The Lab establishes a new, independent group in microelectronics research at the Applied Sciences Complex.
• The Lab opens the new Passive Technologies Test Facility where a variety of solar and energy-conservation concepts will be tested.
• The Materials Preparation Center is established in the Metallurgy and Ceramics Program to strengthen the Lab’s research in the development of new materials. The facility operates on a cost-recovery basis.

1983

• Ames Lab scientists design a device that provides on-line information about the pyritic sulfur content of coal.
• The DOE’s Materials Referral System and Hotline becomes part of the Materials Preparation Center. MRSH focuses on improving the exchange of information about obtaining and preparing materials.

1984

• Collaboration over several years between Ames Lab and U. S. Navy researchers results in a the development of Terfenol-D, a magnetostrictive material that changes form in a magnetic field – a property that makes it ideal for sonar and transducer applications.
• Lab researchers build a hybrid analytical instrument that combines inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy with mass spectrometry. The ICP-MS instrument provides ultratrace analysis for elements
and isotopes.
• “Video Voice,” the computer-aided language-learning device developed at Ames Lab, receives a prestigious IR-100 Award from Industrial Research magazine. Inventors: George Holland, John Homer and Walter Struve. (In 1986, the magazine name changed to Research and Development and the award became known as the R&D 100 Award.)
• On Dec. 15, 1984, Frank Spedding dies at his home in Ames at the age of 82.

1985

• Lab scientists develop an innovative group of copper composite materials that reduce the weight of low-temperature magnets and boost the efficiency of rocket motors.
• The National Science Foundation authorizes a planning grant for the creation of a university/industry cooperative research center for nondestructive evaluation at Iowa State University. The center will be one of 24 such centers in the nation – the first in NDE – and will draw on the expertise of Ames Lab and ISU scientists.
• The Lab receives an IR-100 Award for research on a photoacoustic cell, a device that analyzes the composition of materials by detecting their “voiceprints.” Inventor: John McClelland. • A special 350-page issue of Spectrochimica Acta is devoted entirely to Velmer Fassel and his accomplishments with inductively coupled plasma techniques. Fassel is the first American to be so honored.

1986

• The Metallurgy Building is renamed Wilhelm Hall after Harley Wilhelm, one of the founders of Ames Laboratory.
• Using a sample of neodymium prepared by Ames Laboratory, scientists at General Motors develop a neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet that is stronger and lighter than existing permanent magnets.
• Ames Laboratory’s helium-afterglow discharge detector that analyzes environmental pollutants wins an R&D 100 Award, bringing the Lab’s total to three. Inventors: Art D’Silva, Gary Rice and Velmer Fassel.
• Velmer Fassel receives the Governor’s Science Medal.
• Velmer Fassel, deputy Lab director and a pioneering force in the development of inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy, retires.

1987-88

• The Institute for Physical Research and Technology (IPRT) is formed, replacing the Energy and Mineral Resources Research Institute.
• Ames Laboratory is named a member of the nation’s Superconductivity Initiative, along with Argonne and Brookhaven national laboratories.
• The DOE designates Ames Laboratory as a national Center for Basic Scientific Superconductivity Information, part of a network that will efficiently disseminate research findings. Toward that effort, the Lab begins publishing High Tc Update, a biweekly bulletin carrying the latest information on research regarding superconductivity.
• The Materials Preparation Center produces 60 kilograms of the purest scandium metal in the world.
• Ames Laboratory is designated an historic landmark by the American Nuclear Society in recognition of the large-scale production of uranium metal during World War II.
• In May, Robert Hansen retires as director of Ames Laboratory and the new IPRT organization.
• Ames Laboratory begins work on a high-pressure gas atomizer that will turn molten metal into fine-grained metal powders.
• Tom Barton becomes the third director of Ames Laboratory on Nov. 1.

1989

• The National Institute for Scientific Information lists ICP-MS as one of the country’s “hottest” research topics. The analytical instrument, developed at Ames Lab, is being used in thousands of laboratories worldwide to detect trace elements in small samples.
• Ames Laboratory scientists conduct experiments proving that the new 1-2-3 superconducting materials are actually metals.
• A nickel alloy prepared by the Materials Preparation Center is investigated for use in hyperthermia applications in which a wire made from the alloy is inserted into a cancerous tumor and heated. The action is expected to enhance the effects of radiation and chemotherapy in cancer treatment.
• Alan Goldman and his colleague, Peter Stephens of Stony Brook University, advance the theory that a quasicrystal is an icosahedral glass.
• The Micropol LC Detector developed at Ames Laboratory wins an R&D 100 Award. The device can differentiate between mirror-image forms of molecules, such as good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Inventor: Ed Yeung.