NM Legislature honors Sandia researchers
Sandia researchers Katya Casper and Vincent Urias were honored for their research and presented with certificates on the floor of the New Mexico House of Representatives Feb. 17. The awards were proposed by State Rep. Abbas Akhil, a former Sandian.
Postdoc Technical Showcase
Sandia’s Albuquerque campus hosted its 2019 Postdoctoral Technical Showcase at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in December. The annual event brings together early-career postdoctoral scientists and engineers with Labs’ leaders and decision-makers for a technical poster competition and mentor awards.
Tammy Kolda named ACM Fellow
Sandia mathematician Tammy Kolda has been elected Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. She earned the honor for her “innovations in algorithms for tensor decompositions, contributions to data science and community leadership.”
Biomanufacturing innovation
Sandia scientists joined other DOE national laboratories to showcase their bioscience research and capabilities before investors, industry representatives and university partners at the Innovation XLab: Biomanufacturing Summit at the California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Jan. 28-29.
Identify, track, capture
Sandia robotics experts are working on a way to intercept enemy unmanned aircraft systems midflight. They recently completed a successful test using a swarm of four unmanned aircraft systems to intercept a flying target, using a net to trap it in air like an insect caught in a web and safely lower it to the ground.
Saving strangers
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network reports that there are currently 95,000 people on the national kidney waiting list. In 2019, Sandia data engineer Lawrence Allen became one of 355 living, anonymous donors who made that list move, joining a total of just 2,770 donors to date.
Building Sandia: Late 1960s to mid-1990s
Building Sandia, Part 2, is the second in a series of three articles about the history of architecture at the Labs. Part 2 focuses on the functions and needs that drove the construction of buildings and facilities at the Labs from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.
Secretary of Energy Achievement Awards
Sandians were members of several teams honored in November by then Energy Secretary Rick Perry in a ceremony at DOE headquarters. The teams received Secretary of Energy Achievement Awards, which recognize significant achievements by DOE employees and contractors.
SunPower partnership sparks new solar module
Representatives from SunPower Corp., a leading U.S. solar manufacturer and global competitor, recently visited the New Mexico Regional Test Center, co-located with Sandia’s Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory, to inspect their company’s experimental PV system.
Father, son bond over record-smashing roadster
For the past eight years, Sandia manager Joel Wirth has been working after hours in his home garage with his crew chief — his father, Jack Wirth, a retired Sandia electrical engineer. Together, they’ve built one of the fastest 1927 Model T roadsters in the world.