Sandia LabNews

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.

Hispanics and STEM education at Sandia

The population of Hispanics/Latinos in the U.S. is expected to grow by approximately 40% by 2045, although only approximately 14.4% have bachelor’s degrees or higher and 7% are employed in STEM industries. Presently at Sandia, Hispanics and other minorities make up a significant 34% of the overall workforce. That number is expected to increase, thus promoting diversity at our sites.

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.

Associate Labs Director a 'humbling' position for McIlroy

Associate Labs Director Andy McIlroy will has spent 25 years of his career at Sandia. As the new ALD of Integrated Security Solutions, Andy plans to keep Sandia’s people and mission at the core of his decision-making process.

American Indian Science and Engineering Society recognizes early-career Sandian

Geoscience engineer Dylan Moriarty has been named the 2019 Most Promising Engineer or Scientist by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. The award is given to an American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nations or other indigenous person of North America with less than five years of work experience since his or her last degree.

National Hispanic science and engineering organization honors two Sandians

Materials scientist Nic Argibay and ES&H senior manager Rafael Gonzalez were honored at the 31st annual Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference by Great Minds in STEM. Nic received a Most Promising Scientist or Engineer award and Rafael received a Luminary award during the conference in late September.

Nuclear Deterrence strategy responds to a changing world

A reflection on past successes and a look at future challenges in a changing geopolitical world were highlighted at Sandia’s Sept. 26 Nuclear Deterrence all-hands meeting, “2020 and Beyond.” Associate Labs Director and Chief Engineer for Nuclear Weapons Steve Girrens and other Sandia leaders in ND touched on accomplishments, the division’s reorganization and the evolving stockpile stewardship mission of the Labs.

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.

Autonomy New Mexico interns build drones to test hypersonic tech

Sandia is developing autonomy and artificial intelligence for flight systems soaring at more than 3,800 mph. The technologies to get there will initially be tested on drones that shuffle around at about 5 mph.

Hate to wait? Hruby Fellow looks to speed up climate research

Sandia has awarded Kelsey DiPietro a Jill Hruby Fellowship. The applied mathematician has proposed a way to make computer models more efficient — improving accuracy without increasing time or resources to run them.

Steve Younger signs annual stockpile assessment letter

Laboratories Director Steve Younger signed Sandia’s annual nuclear weapons stockpile assessment letter in late September. Completion of this annual assessment letter is required by law, and is one of the principal responsibilities of the Labs director.

Wrangling big data into real-time, actionable intelligence

Social media, cameras, sensors and more generate huge amounts of data that can overwhelm analysts sifting through it all for meaningful, actionable information to provide to decision-makers. Sandia researchers are working to lessen that burden by developing the science to gather insights from data in nearly real time.