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2023 Bronze Medal Award

Headshot of Randy Doriese and Carl Reintsema

AWARD CITATION

The team is honored for enabling the first use of superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs) in space. Their 16-year development effort culminated in 2022 with a successful flight of the Micro-X rocket and the imaging of X-rays from a supernova remnant. TES cameras provide greatly improved X-ray images but require operating temperatures close to absolute zero. The team developed TES readout circuits that withstood the shock of launch and that worked correctly in the harsh environment of space. These results will enable the use of TESs in future NASA satellite missions.

GROUP AWARD

W. Bertrand (Randy) Doriese

Physicist
Physical Measurement Laboratory, Quantum Sensors Division

Carl Reintsema

Electronics Engineer
Physical Measurement Laboratory, Quantum Sensors Division
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