Los Alamos National Laboratory chemist My Hang Huynh was chosen Tuesday as one of two dozen 2007 winners of what are popularly known as “genius grants” from the MacArthur Foundation.
Each MacArthur fellow will receive $500,000 over the next five years from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. They can use the money however they wish.
Huynh, 45, an inorganic chemist for Los Alamos’ high explosives science and technology group, said the fellowship was “completely a surprise to me.” She said she hadn’t even heard about the foundation before a representative called to say she’d been chosen.
The award “gives me complete freedom to work in whatever area I choose,” said Huynh, who currently is on leave from the lab. “It is a perfect opportunity for me to continue my professional career.”
She has been working in the development of “green primary explosives” research that could improve the safety of miners and military workers as well as air bag design.
Primary explosives, the small charges used to set off larger explosives, for centuries have been lead- and mercury-based. That poses health hazards to users and releases environmental contaminants.
Huynh and her team have been developing primary explosives that are safer to produce and handle, and because they do not use lead or mercury, they don’t pose the same environmental problems.
