The resulting ductile iron aluminide earned an R&D 100 award in 1990 for Vinod Sikka, C. T. Liu, and Claudette McKamey. McKamey, who started at ORNL as a secretary and then became a metallurgist, made a key contribution: she discovered that small additions of chromium make iron aluminide more ductile. For her work, McKamey was named Inventor of the Year in 1989 by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, which then managed ORNL for the Department of Energy.