Truman and Hruby postdoctoral fellows at Sandia National Laboratories are given extraordinary latitude to pursue their own ideas, rather than being trained by fitting into the research plans of more experienced researchers. To give wings to this concept, the four annual winners — two for each category – are 100 percent pre-funded for three years. This enables them, like bishops or knights in chess, to cut across financial barriers, walk into any group and participate in work by others that might help illuminate the research each has chosen to pursue.
