We are delighted to announce this year’s NM EPSCoR Mentor Award recipients—Dr. Olga Lavrova and Dr. Ali Bidram. Nominated by their mentees, both of this year’s recipients stand out for their exceptional efforts to build strong professional and interpersonal relationships with students; advance their mentees’ academic, research, and professional goals; and create inclusive environments for diverse students. Please join us in recognizing Dr. Lavrova and Dr. Bidram for their outstanding work in mentoring the students who will define New Mexico’s diverse future workforce.
Category: Education & Outreach
For ten weeks, University of New Mexico recent Law School graduate, Morgan Johnson, worked for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) researching energy efficiency initiatives intended to support low-to-moderate income New Mexicans. At the end of her externship, she provided this 'report-out' describing her NM EPSCoR Externship experience. Enjoy!
Presenters: Laura Tabor and Jacqueline Waite, NM Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD)
Presenter: Allison Brody, Director of Education, ¡Explora!
Presenter: Christine Pfund, Senior Scientist, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Category
In summer 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF) called upon the scientific community, nonprofits, industry members, and general public to participate in the NSF 2026 Idea Machine competition, a contest designed to help set the U.S. agenda for fundamental research in science and engineering.
Presenters:
Jeewon Choi, PhD Candidate, Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico (Research Goal 1),
Jacob Marks, Masters Student, Computer Science, New Mexico Tech (Research Goal 2),
Adnan Bashir, PhD Candidate, Computer Science, University of New Mexico (Research Goal 3),
Shubhasmita Pati, PhD Candidate, Electrical & Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University (Research Goal 4)
Presenters:
Diana Dugas, CyberInfrastructure Architect, NMSU
Karl Benedict, Director of Research Data Services/ Director of IT, UNM
New Mexico EPSCoR is committed to the principles of diversity and inclusion. We strive to establish an environment that exemplifies and promotes diversity of all types (individual, institutional, geographic, and disciplinary).
At last year's annual All Hands Meeting for the NM SMART Grid Center, we charged our team members to come up with ideas of what they could do personally to engage a wide diversity of students at their institutions. Here are a few more ideas that continue the overarching themes of “Involve. Encourage. Engage.”
The NM SMART Grid Center is pleased to announce the most recent faculty hire for the project: Frank Currie, who is leading development of the Smart- and Micro-grid Training Center at Santa Fe Community College (SFCC). Within this role, Frank will spearhead development of the Distributed Energy Systems Program, an AAS and AS degree program specializing in smart grid and microgrid systems technician training.
“I am excited to build the program I wish had existed when I started school,” Frank said.