Livermore Lab reports $9.4 million in royalties for year

San Francisco Business Times - October 8, 2008

Wednesday, October 8, 2008 - 4:24 PM PDT
Livermore Lab reports $9.4 million in royalties for year
San Francisco Business Times - by Steven E.F. Brown

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory brought in $9.4 million in royalties in the just-ended fiscal year.

This is, by more than 50 percent, the best year for royalties ever at the lab, which was started in 1952 as a Cold War atomic research facility.

Technology developed at the Department of Energy laboratory that bring in the most royalties are:


A cancer and disease test licensed to Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT).
A laser used to strengthen fan blades in jet engine, licensed to Metal Improvement Co. of Paramus, N.J.
A rapid polymerase chain reaction microchip device that heats and cools DNA, licensed to Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) in Sunnyvale.
Radar technology used for fluid-level sensing and other uses, licensed to 12 businesses.

The lab’s industrial partnerships office, led by Erik Stenehjem, inked 19 licenses during the fiscal year.

In fiscal 2007 the lab brought in $6.3 million in royalties; in fiscal 2006 $6.1 million; and $5.6 million in 2005.

The lab is run by a management group made up of the University of California; San Francisco companies Bechtel and URS Corp. (NYSE: URS); Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies; and Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle.

The lab was set up in 1952 to improve atomic weapons technology. Its first noted breakthrough was the design of an atomic warhead that fit on a missile launched from a submarine. Later, the lab did work on so-called MIRV warheads, which packed several independently steered warheads onto the tip of a single missile.

In time, the lab added many non-weapon programs, like biomedicine, laser and fusion energy research.

As supercomputers improved, the lab used them more and more to simulate nuclear explosions, which had been banned by treaties.




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