ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories’ top official, Labs President and Director Thomas O. Hunter, has announced major grants to the engineering programs at three New Mexico universities.
The Lockheed Martin Corporation funds are committed through Sandia’s Community Involvement Office as part of Lockheed Martin’s and Sandia’s commitment to the city and state. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, manages Sandia for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Hunter made the announcement Feb. 23 during Sandia’s 2006 “State of the Labs” annual status report to business and community leaders at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. The grants are designed to bolster programs at the universities to attract promising young people to the schools’ engineering departments and to make sure the students overcome obstacles, succeed in their studies, and complete their engineering degrees.
The grants are one way Sandia is supporting the American Competitiveness Initiative to encourage American innovation and strengthen our nation’s ability to compete in the global economy. The initiative, recently announced by President Bush, will increase federal investment in critical research, ensure the United States continues to lead the world in opportunity and innovation, and provide American children with a foundation in math and science.
The grants are to be distributed as follows:
University of New Mexico — $50,000 to UNM’s School of Engineering to support an initiative in Biomedical Engineering and promote collaborative research between UNM’s Center for Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), a joint project at Sandia and Los Alamos national labs. The activities will be integrated with UNM’s new graduate program (M.S. and Ph.D.) in Nanoscience and Microsystems.
New Mexico State University — $50,000 to NMSU’s College of Engineering to support the university’s seven-week Pre-freshman Engineering Program (PREP) for middle and high school students in Dona Ana County interested in science and engineering, to acquire assets for the university’s engineering library, and for engineering student recruitment and retention programs.
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology — $50,000 to support a New Mexico Tech program to help incoming students overcome educational obstacles, including a program to provide pre-college math and science instruction to students in need of remedial intervention.