Operation Backpack supports CA military families
Volunteers from Sandia’s California site donated 206 backpacks filled with needed supplies this year to children of local military families. This year’s virtual donation event offered participants options to donate electronically or make direct purchases from an Amazon wish list. The next donation event, One Warm Coat, is happening now through Oct. 31.
‘Magical’ mathematics unlocks engineering honor for Sandia scientist
Sandia mathematician Tamara Kolda has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering this year — one of a handful of mathematicians ever granted membership. She was selected for her groundbreaking work in tensor decomposition — calculations that improve automotive engine turbulence modeling and chemical composition sample extractions.
Safeguarding biological data
A partnership between Sandia and the Boston firm BioBright LLC to improve the security of synthetic biology equipment has become more relevant after the U.S. and others issued warnings that hackers were using the COVID-19 pandemic to increase their activities.
Material found in house paint may spur technology revolution
The development of a new method to make non-volatile computer memory may have unlocked a problem that has been holding back machine learning and has the potential to revolutionize technologies like voice recognition, image processing and autonomous driving.
NNSA Administrator visits Sandia’s California campus
NNSA Administrator and DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty visited Sandia’s California campus on Sept. 30 to tour the new SPEAR facility and receive an update on the Labs’ COVID-19 response efforts.
Jackie Chen named DOE fellow
Jackie Chen, whose work on fundamental turbulence-chemistry interactions in combustion helped advance the design of automotive, gas turbine and jet engines, has been selected by DOE as a distinguished scientist fellow — one of only eight researchers in the nation to hold the distinction.
California students win 2020 DOE National Science Bowl
A team of students from Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, California, won the 2020 DOE National Science Bowl in June. The National Science Bowl, a Jeopardy-like competition for U.S. high school and middle school students, tests their knowledge and academic ability in all areas of science and mathematics.
Town hall presents options for working parents
The Integrated Security Solutions division held a town hall on Aug. 11 for parents who are balancing work and childcare responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event covered several topics affecting working parents, including schedule flexibility, the vacation donation program, expanded open enrollment options and support for caregivers.
‘Confounding’ pandemic brings California doctor to the fore
One of the most consistent voices heard this year during our new reality shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic has been that of Dr. Dan Azar, Sandia’s California site physician.
Marshaling resources to fight COVID-19
As Sandia and the nation came to terms with a new, socially distanced reality, researchers within the Labs’ Integrated Security Solutions Division were working to understand the biology of the novel coronavirus, learn how the human body responds to infection by SARS CoV-2 and model how COVID-19 spreads in a population.