Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc announced that its handheld line of Niton® XL3t Series XRF analyzers has been recognized with a prestigious Good Design Award by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum.

The Good Design Awards are conferred annually by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design together with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The 2008 awards were judged in New York and Los Angeles in November by an international jury of design professionals, architects, experts, and cultural leaders.

According to the Museum, the Good Design Award publicly acknowledges and elevates the best and finest new design and design innovation for products and graphics designed and/or manufactured between 2006 and 2008.

Mr Jon Shein director of global marketing for the Niton Analyzers business unit at Thermo Fisher said that "Our primary goal of helping users save time and improve their productivity with fast, reliable and repeatable results would not be possible without an ergonomically designed instrument, created with human and environmental factors in mind. From the inside out, these instruments were designed to make our customers more successful."

In 2008, Thermo Scientific Niton XL3t analyzers also won an R&D 100 Award for technological innovation, the third that has been awarded to the Niton XRF analyzer product line and a Product of the Year Award in the Safety Products category from Creative Child Magazine.