Comprehensive Chemical Fingerprinting by Multidimensional GC and Supervised Machine Learning Named 2024 Laboratory Directed Research and Development Most Valuable Project
The 2024 Laboratory Directed Research and Development Most Valuable Project goes to Joseph Mannion and his team for their work on “Comprehensive Chemical Fingerprinting by Multidimensional GC and Supervised Machine Learning.”
By leveraging advances in modern machine-learning-based data analysis strategies and untargeted analytical methods for organic analysis, Mannion and his team helped to advance SRNL’s capability to characterize complex emission profiles within the atmosphere.
The multidimensional gas chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry methods developed by this work improved sensitivity by four orders of magnitude over traditional GC/MS systems for species of interest.
To take advantage of the higher order dimensionality of the data sets, Mannion and his team developed a machine-learning-based approach for organic fingerprint detection using the open-source EPA SPECIATE database.
The LDRD MVP is awarded annually and recognizes the SRNL LDRD project that generated the highest return on investment during the previous five-year period.
Project selection is based on 12 objective measures related to follow-on-funding, publications, presentations, intellectual property, new hires, partnerships, and awards.
SRNL Laboratory Director Vahid Majidi presents Joseph Mannion with the LDRD MVP Award.
Funded in FY20 and FY21 by the LDRD program, Mannion’s project continues to accumulate a remarkable return on investment, including:
- $7.8 million in follow-on projects including five NA-22 funded initiatives.
- One SRNL copyright for the team’s GCxGC Preprocessing and Analysis tool published on Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN).
- Five resulting new hires including both post-docs and full-time employees.
SRNL’s LDRD program emphasizes early exploration and application of creative and potentially transformational ideas that enhance SRNL’s ability to execute current and future mission priorities. Mannion’s scientific leadership and commitment to furthering SRNL’s capabilities in nuclear nonproliferation technologies are an excellent representation of the LDRD mission and SRNL’s mission at large.