The NIS Student Education Scholarships Program, now in its second year, is part of the division's efforts to enhance its workforce. NIS Division Director Terry Hawkins conceived the program, designed to entice quality undergraduate and graduate students to work for NIS once they complete their educational programs.
The scholarship funds come from annual patent royalties derived from NIS-developed technologies. This year's royalty amount of $53,000 is more than double last year's amount. In all, 48 students and employees, 15 of them from New Mexico, and Northern New Mexico Community College in Española received scholarships. Also, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation provided $18,153 in matching funds for the portion of scholarship money that remained in New Mexico.
"We face a number of difficult challenges in which science and technology can play a significant role. These challenges include preventing the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by terrorists, preventing attacks on our national infrastructure, dealing with legacy nuclear materials and using science to better understand the cosmos. These challenges likely will be with us for some time to come, and they all require the involvement of the best and brightest talent we can find," said Hawkins.
"The NIS scholarship program is an important element in ensuring that the required talent is available to address these challenges. It is also an important part of our outreach to the community," he added.
"We're constantly looking for the cream of the crop of students to work in NIS. This scholarship program helps provide additional incentive for them to work for us after they graduate," said Elsie Trujillo of the NIS Division Office. "We match them up with mentors when they arrive, and most of them are required to write major research reports during their stay. Their work here is very intensive."
Regular NIS employees who also are involved in qualifying educational programs are eligible for scholarship money as well, provided the Laboratory is not already paying for their education. Three such employees received scholarship money in their names.
NIS group leaders submitted nomination packages for those students or NIS employees they thought were most deserving of educational financial assistance. Afterward, Hawkins discussed each nomination package with the respective group leaders, said Trujillo. "We received 55 packages altogether, so most of them received scholarship money," she added. Recipients officially were notified on Aug. 21.
All student scholarship funds go directly to their respective universities, where it is then used to credit the students' educational accounts. Because most New Mexico students' awards averaged about $1,000, that means New Mexico universities will receive about $2,000 in the students' names because of the matching contribution from the Laboratory foundation.
NNMCC, which received $2,500 each from NIS and the foundation, will use the money to offer scholarships for students who enroll in a new program called Electronics Packaging Design Technology. The new course is designed to train students to develop layout designs of printed circuit boards and microelectronic components for manufacturing. Scholarship recipients for the NNMCC program are separate from the NIS program.
The curriculum was developed by Mel Duran and Gary Smith of the Space Engineering Group in NIS. Duran and Smith also were instrumental in getting Sun Systems in Phoenix and Mentor Graphics in Oregon to donate 10 workstations worth $38,000 and 10 layout software "This program fills the niche between design engineering and manufacturing," said Duran. "The companies that donated the hardware and software also will maintain a list of the students enrolled in the program, exposing them to industry and helping map jobs for them as they near completion of their degrees."
He added two other companies in Albuquerque and Texas have agreed to process and fabricate the students' designs free of charge and ship the products back. "This real world experience that the students will receive as a result of this cooperation with industry is just invaluable," said Duran.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.