Combustion Research Facility

A Department of Energy Office of Science Collaborative Research Facility

Advancing fundamental physical sciences and technologies for America’s energy future

Established as the first U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) user facility in the 1970s and designated a DOE collaborative research facility in 2008, the Combustion Research Facility (CRF) at Sandia National Laboratories has served as a national and international leader in combustion science and technology for more than 40 years. The CRF’s inherent strengths are now being applied to address ever broader scientific and technical challenges for energy use in a changing world.

Collaborative mission

At the CRF, we encourage the direct involvement of individual collaborators from the scientific community. We host more than 150 collaborators each year who work side-by-side with staff researchers to develop new research methods and approaches, conduct experiments exploiting new facilities and techniques, and solve high-priority combustion problems.

Visiting researcher program

The CRF has hosted visiting researchers from around the world, including postdocs, university faculty and graduate students, high school teachers, industrial collaborators, and national laboratory and government researchers. Together with CRF staff, they have expanded fundamental knowledge of combustion processes by pioneering research into new science and applied concepts.

Awards & Kudos

David W. Chandler was awarded the Dudley Herschbach Medal at the XXIX Dynamics Of Molecular Collisions meeting in Snowbird Utah, July 6-11, 2025.

Dr. Chandler received the medal for his pioneering work on the development of multiplex detection techniques with molecular beams and for using these techniques to investigate the dynamics of chemical reactions, collisions and electron ejection.

Tim Zwier, was awarded the Miguel Catalán Medal at the XVIII Iberian Joint Meeting on Atomic and Molecular Physics, July 21-24, 2025 in Vigo, Spain

The medal, named for Prof. Miguel Catalán (1894-1957), honors a scientist for exceptional contributions and research record in the field of Atomic and Molecular Physics. The Medal was established in 2018 and first awarded to Nobel prizewinner Prof. Dudley R. Herschbach (Harvard).

Krupa Ramasesha named Fulbright US Scholar

The Department of State named chemist Krupa Ramasesha to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program to Austria for the 2025-2026 academic year.

During her time in Austria, Krupa will hold the Fulbright-NAWI Graz Visiting Professorship in the Natural Sciences at the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology.