Lincoln Lab names ATA Small Business of the Year

Applied Technology Associates (ATA), a precision measurement, sensing and controls company in Albuquerque, NM, and an SPIE Corporate Member, was awarded the Lincoln Laboratory 2013 Small Business of the Year Award.

At a ceremony in December 2013, Lincoln Lab Assistant Director for Operations C. Scott Anderson presented the 250-person company with the award to recognize its exceptional service.

Working as a Lincoln Lab subcontractor, ATA developed an innovative, magneto-hydrodynamic inertial reference unit. Along with ATA's own high-performance wideband angular rate sensors and voice coil articulators, the unit became an integral part of the design for the inertially stable platform (ISP) developed for the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration launched by NASA in September 2013, according to a press release.

SPIE Fellow Jim McNally is ATA's director of strategic development. Anthony Tenorio is ATA's CEO and chairman.

Lincoln Laboratory is a research and development center of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a U.S. Department of Defense Research and Development Laboratory.

It also nominated ATA for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 2013 Small Business Subcontractor of the Year Award; the company went on to win the statewide title for New Mexico last year. The national award is a part of the annual SBA National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of American entrepreneurs and small business owners to competitive enterprise.

More information:

• MIT Lincoln Lab press release
• Jim McNally SPIE.org profile 
• ATA website