Category: Education & Outreach

Greetings and Happy New Year! First off I’d like to introduce myself. I am Chelsea Chee, the NM EPSCoR Diversity Outreach Specialist. I have spent many years working on and with tribal communities (mainly on the Navajo Nation and with young people) around climate change, global warming, and sustainability. So, I was attracted to NM EPSCoR’s work on renewable energy and goal of enhancing diversity. I am excited to be in this position and look forward to what else this opportunity will bring.

New Mexico EPSCoR is proud to offer two programs in 2014 to encourage undergraduate students, especially those from underrepresented groups, to pursue education and careers in STEM fields. Both programs are now open for applications.

You might have noticed that the science IQ in Albuquerque seemed a little bit higher in mid-October and that’s because more than 1,700 science museum professionals from 42 countries were in town for the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference. Local museum hosts Explora, National Museum of Nuclear History and Science, and New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science showcased New Mexico’s natural and cultural heritage in addition to our scientific and technological accomplishments.

Phyllis Baca, New Mexico EPSCoR partner and component lead on both Workforce Development and Diversity, was recently honored with the Seventh Annual IMPACT! Award by the New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering (NMNWSE) and the New Mexico Commissions on the Status of Women. The IMPACT!

Over 110 students, faculty, educators and administrators gathered over the weekend to celebrate science and research during the New Mexico Academy of Science (NMAS) and New Mexico EPSCoR Joint Annual Meeting & Symposium. The two organizations joined together to present findings on EPSCoR's current grant, Energize New Mexico, and the previous grant, Climate Change Impacts on New Mexico Mountain Sources of Water, as well as other topics including wildlife ecology.

The New Mexico Academy of Science (NMAS) and NM EPSCoR invite anyone to submit abstracts on Impacts of Climate Change on Water in New Mexico and Sustainable Energy Development in New Mexico for presentation at the 2013 Joint Annual Meeting of NMAS and EPSCoR in Albuquerque, NM, on November 9, 2013! The 2013 Joint Annual Meeting of NMAS and NM EPSCoR is an open forum for sharing the results of research and teaching on “Impacts of Climate Change on Water in New Mexico” and “Sustainable Energy Development in New Mexico”.

As many already know, it takes a lot of planning to achieve the NSF EPSCoR goal of improving the R&D competitiveness of researchers and institutions within EPSCoR jurisdictions, and NM EPSCoR is no exception. Team leaders, State Committee members, and NM EPSCoR staff and participants are gathering today and tomorrow at the UNM Science and Technology park for a 2-day Strategic Planning Retreat, facilitated by New Mexico First.

New Mexico EPSCoR is proud to support undergraduate research projects that can lead to prestigious research opportunities and the continuation of higher education. Juan Solis, a civil engineering graduate student at NMSU and a former NM EPSCoR research student, recently received the Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. As an undergraduate, Solis worked with NM EPSCoR researcher Salim Bawazir (NMSU) to build and install climate stations.

This morning, University of New Mexico President Bob Frank sent out his weekly newsletter to the UNM community. This week featured stories about innovation coming out of higher education institutions in order to drive the country forward, and how research universities like UNM play a role in the country's economic competitiveness. New Mexico EPSCoR was featured as one of the sources of UNM innovation.

A new $20 mil­lion Exper­i­men­tal Pro­gram to Stim­u­late Com­pet­i­tive Research (EPSCoR) grant from the National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion will sup­port key research into ways to make New Mex­ico an energy suf­fi­cient state. The research will focus on ways to improve effi­ciency of sus­tain­able energy resource uti­liza­tion and to min­i­mize envi­ron­men­tal impacts of ura­nium min­ing and oil and gas production.