Category: Sustainability

Bioalgal Team co-lead David Hanson (UNM) and Team member Jerilyn Timlin (SNL) recently received a grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) for a new initiative to advance fundamental bioenergy science. Their project, "Hyperspectral Light Sheet Raman Imaging of Leaf Metabolism," is lead by P.I. and UNM Physics professor Keith Lidke, and will build on research, infrastructure, and relationships established through the NM EPSCoR Energize New Mexico grant.

Energize New Mexico PhD student Sumant Avasarala recently had his research for the Uranium Transport & Site Remediation team published in Environmental Science and Technology, an academic journal from the American Chemical Society. Sumant is working for his PhD under Dr. José Cerrato and Dr. Ricardo Gonzáles-Pinzón. The article, "Reactive Transport of U and V from Abandoned Uranium Mine Wastes," focuses on research pertaining to how uranium (U) and vanadium (V) interacts with the environment around the abandoned Blue Gap/Tachee Claim uranium mine on the Navajo Nation.

Two New Mexico faculty have each recently received funding approval as Project Investigators on NSF grants. Kateryna Artyushkova at UNM received an EPSCoR Track 4 grant, and Energize New Mexico faculty hire Hatim Geli at NMSU received a INEFWS award.

Bioalgal Energy team member and UNM faculty Linnea Ista was recently featured on Innovation Central ABQ's "Craft Over Craft," a video series that pairs Albuquerque experts with local beer. Linnea talks about her research into algae and its possibilities. View the video below!

Dr. David Hanson, Bioalgal Energy co-lead for Energize New Mexico recently received two grants that fund collaborative efforts in energy and biology. These two grants alone will bring $1.2 million over 3 years into Dave's lab specifically, and a total of $3 million into New Mexico. Both grants were facilitated by EPSCoR.

The Externship Program is a research exchange program that allows New Mexico graduate students (with an existing assistantship) to spend a semester or summer doing research at a partnering New Mexico university or research facility. This report is from University of New Mexico student Katie Zemlick about her time as an extern at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

If you are a research scientist or a graduate student, funding is probably often at the top of the list of your concerns. In the clean energy research sector, it's often difficult to find funding outside of government sources. But fear not! A new initiative promises to bring over $1 billion to clean energy projects. Microsoft Founder Bill Gates hopes to change that with his recently announced investor-led fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV).

The New Mexico Informal Science Education Network (NM ISE Net) has joined forces with the New Mexico Public Education Department (NM PED) to support K-12 science teacher professional learning across the state. For the second year, NM ISE Net educators participated in a week-long facilitator training in preparation for summer teacher institutes in Albuquerque and Las Cruces.

NM EPSCoR is committed to the state of New Mexico, and we are no stranger to examining the effects of natural (or unnatural) disasters on water and the environment—for example, team members during our last grant were able to study the effects of the Las Conchas Fire on the Valles Caldera. This month, several people on the Uranium Team and the Geothermal Team have formed a collaboration among New Mexico Tech, University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University to research the long-term impact of the recent Animas River contamination from the Gold King Mine. Bonnie Frey, Uranium Team co-lead, wrote the following report about their experience.

DataONE welcomes the NM EPSCoR as the 28th Member Node to join the federation. NM EPSCoR and DataONE have a long history of collaboration. The development of a Tier 4 Member Node at EPSCoR enhances the partnership by providing another replication target for other Member Nodes in the federation and increasing visibility of NM EPSCoR’s holdings to a broader audience.