Sandia LabNews

NM Legislature marks impact of Sandia Science and Technology Park

The New Mexico Legislature recently recognized the Sandia Science and Technology Park for 20 years of economic impact. The memorials recognized the park for positively contributing to the local and state economies, for being one of the first research parks developed in connection with a national laboratory and for serving as a model for other laboratories and universities.

Sandia aerospace engineer to head national institute

Members of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics elected Basil Hassan, a senior manager and engineering program deputy, as the group’s next president. The AIAA represents more than 30,000 individual and 95 corporate members from the aeronautics and space community. Basil will begin a yearlong stint as president-elect of the institute in May, and then serve a two-year term as president starting in May 2020.

David Chacon honored with Legion of Merit

David Chacon, who works in Sandia’s information technology audits group, has been awarded the Department of Defense Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements during his tenure in the U.S. Army.

Fields of gold

Jennifer Payne is a Sandia ecologist who stabilizes degraded lands. She is also one of two Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioners in New Mexico, a title held by only 150 people in the country. As an ecologist who specializes in restoration, Jennifer ensures that Sandia upholds its commitments to protect land leased from Kirtland Air Force Base and land withdrawn from the U.S. Forest Service.

CALLING GAMERS: Future nuclear security experts train with Sandia-designed game

The next generation of nuclear security experts is being trained in an exciting new way — by playing a first-of-its-kind war game Sandia helped design. The game, Signal, which goes online this spring after its launch as a board game last year, offers players a chance to make strategic decisions using modern political, economic and military tools.