Building a medical-isotope producing reactor
Eden Radioisotopes LLC, a New Mexico company, secured funding this year and located 240 acres of land in the southeastern corner of the state to build a small reactor that exclusively will produce medical isotopes. The concept was developed and licensed by Sandia, and the effort, in partnership with Eden, earned a regional Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.
Using big data to solve big New Mexico problems
Community Involvement kicked off this fiscal year’s Community Engagement Speakers Series with a talk by NM Appleseed Executive Director and Founder Jennifer Ramo. NM Appleseed is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to ending poverty through systemic solutions to complex issues like hunger, education and homelessness.
From Afghanistan to Alaska, with atmosphere in between
For Justin LaPierre, helping maintain an atmospheric research station at the northern tip of Alaska is “eerily reminiscent” of being deployed in the deserts of Afghanistan — just much colder. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, LaPierre has worked as an observer at Oliktok Point for two years.
With grit and determination
Army veteran Mark Small started working at Sandia as an intern through the former Wounded Warrior Career Development Program, now called the Exceptional Warrior Career Development Program. Working with Sandia mentors, he completed bachelor's and master's degrees and secured a staff position at the Labs. He is one of the program’s success stories, and he now works to recruit other veterans to Sandia.
Strategic Priority No. 7
Sandia's Strategic Priority No. 7 is a call to action to identify better, easier ways to do our job on behalf of the nation. We need to be more agile, make more focused decisions to create and sustain an exceptional institution and remove organizational barriers that are slowing us down and reducing our impact.
Sandia health educator invited to speak at Virgin Pulse HERO forum
Virgin Pulse invited Sandia health educator and program coordinator Callie Lovato to speak at HEROForum19 in early September. A national non-profit, the Health Enhancement Research Organization has a mission to identify and share best practices in employee health and well-being.
Security in a heartbeat
Sandia is collaborating with a New Mexico small business to test and develop a biometric security system based on the human heartbeat. Sandia signed an agreement with Albuquerque-based Aquila Inc. to develop and test a wearable prototype that can stream in real time an identifying signature based on the electrical activity of a person’s heart.
Sandia debuts small-business partnership program
Sandia launched a mentor-protégé program on Oct. 1 to assist small-business development and enhance a company’s ability to build a solid foundation to compete for larger and more federal and industry opportunities. Sandia’s mentor-protégé program was unveiled during a small-business forum at the UNM Lobo Rainforest. More than 50 small-business representatives attended.
Strategic Priority No. 6
Strategic Priority No. 6, “Deploy outstanding engineering, science and technology to our mission,” is about actively supporting research at Sandia that takes full advantage of our strength to develop creative, cutting-edge solutions to emerging national security challenges that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago.
Active shooter exercise tests Protective Force mettle
Sandia’s Protective Force tested itself last month in a full-scale joint active-shooter exercise with Kansas City National Security Campus New Mexico Operations, Kirtland Air Force Base 377th security forces and the FBI, all operating within Sandia’s emergency management structure.