A joint study conducted by Applied Spectra (West Sacramento, California) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, California) used laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to measure uranium with a detection limit as low as 1.3 picograms, achieving unprecedented sensitivity by optimizing the uranium emission line, system hardware, and light collection efficiency. Richard Russo is the corresponding author for the paper that resulted from this research, and will receive, on behalf of the rest of his team, the 2024 Spectrochimica Acta Part B Best Paper Award.