Category: Community

On March 6, 2015, I had the privilege of listening to Uranium component team member José Cerrato (UNM) deliver a graduate seminar on his research, "Reactivity of Metals from Abandoned Uranium Mine Wastes in the Southwestern United States". With a background in biogeochemistry, José knows the value of geology, nanoscience, and interdisciplinary study; even though he is in the department of Civil Engineering at UNM, his research brings several disciplines together.

Last fall, the STEM Advancement Program (STEMAP) Coordinators (including myself) began recruiting for this summer’s group of undergraduate summer researchers. We traveled 2,463 miles and 40 hours to visit 14 campuses to share information about our 2015 STEMAP program; see the map below. All that effort paid off!

The 2014 New Mexico Journal of Science, published by the New Mexico Academy of Science, is now available for public viewing. This year's Journal is subtitled "Water, Energy, and the Environment," and includes abstracts from participants in the 2014 NMAS Research Symposium.

NM EPSCoR and the New Mexico Academy of Science welcomed over 130 faculty, students, researchers, educators and community members at the Hyatt Downtown Albuquerque on November 1st.

Creative-Startups, the nation's first accelerator for creative and cultural entrepreneurs, recently debuted their 2014 Cohort during Creative Startups Week, October 20-25. Each creative team faced colleagues, the media, and the public on Demo Night, held at ¡Explora! Science Center on Thursday, October 23rd; Teams showed videos and slideshows on their projects and what they hope to achieve with funding from investors.

Our Diversity Coordinator, Chelsea Chee, reports on the SACNAS National Conference. Chelsea attended with three NM EPSCoR STEMAP students, and helped organize and run an Education, Outreach, and Diversity exhibit booth with several EPSCoR jurisdictions.

During the month of July 2014, the NM EPSCoR Uranium Transport and Site Remediation component team mentored three minority undergraduate students at UNM by providing hands on experience on a geochemical extraction experiment of mine waste to understand desorption chemical concentrations and kinetics.

New Mexico EPSCoR is proud to partner with smaller colleges around the state in order to provide research opportunities to students at non-research schools. Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari, NM is a new participant in the WC-WAVE Undergraduate Visualization and Modeling Network (UVMN) program.

STEMAP ended last week in celebration of 11 undergraduate students’ summer research with 50+ people at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Students spent eight weeks working with NM EPSCOR researchers at UNM, NMT, and NMSU to gain valuable, in-the-field research experience their current colleges do not provide. It all culminated in a morning full of presentations to fellow researchers, faculty, NM EPSCoR staff, friends, and family.

GCCE is excited to announce the launch of their newest initiative: Creative-Startups, the first startup accelerator in the US designed by and for creative entrepreneurs. Creative and cultural entrepreneurs, with backgrounds in music, education, film, cuisine, photography, art, design, and other creative fields have powerful business ideas and can build successful businesses.