NEWS

Earlier this month, more than 30 New Mexico EPSCoRians flew to New Orleans for the 2026 NSF EPSCoR Summit, held May 19–22. This year’s conference welcomed more than 600 participants and was organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

New Mexico had a strong presence at the 2026 EPSCoR Summit in New Orleans—showing up not only as attendees but also as facilitators, speakers, moderators, and poster presenters. 

View event photos!

New Mexico-Led and New Mexico-Featured Sessions

BioBridge: Building a Community College–to–R1 Research Pathway Through Paid Undergraduate Research 

RIO-NM Co-PI Philip Lister (CNM) along with Professor Heather Simpson (CNM) presented about the BioBridge Program, a highly successful undergraduate research pathway connecting CNM and UNM through a 10-week paid summer research experience for biotechnology students.

Seed Award Programs in Practice: Approaches, Lessons, and Real-World Challenges

Moderated by Andra Kiscaden (RIO-NM/NM EPSCoR Program Administrator and Senior Business Manager), this session emphasized practical considerations in designing and administering seed award programs. Selena Connealy (RIO-NM/NM EPSCoR Associate Director) served as a panelist alongside colleagues from Arkansas and Vermont jurisdictions. Discussion topics included review structures, compliance barriers, and strategies to support sustainable, jurisdiction-wide outcomes. 

Using Smartsheet to Manage Multi-Institution Research Grants 

Anthony Moye (NMSU), Project Manager for DigiCARES an NSF FEC project at NMSU, and Mat Martins (NMSU), Project Manager for the DREAM Center an NSF E-RISE award also at NMSU, led session on how a Smartsheet can be used to coordinate research tasks across institutions, streamline structured data capture for reporting, and provide budget dashboards that support burn-rate monitoring and financial-risk visibility for complex awards. 

CIRCLES Alliance: Collaboration Across Jurisdictions and Tribal Communities 

Selena Connealy also contributed to a broader engagement session organized by Stephanie Higdon (SD CIRCLES Alliance), which emphasized cross-jurisdiction collaboration and sustained partnerships with Tribal communities to support Indigenous students’ STEM pathways. 

EDOCS Community Session: Optimizing EPSCoR Data Reporting 

New Mexico contributed to a community session organized by Denise Blaha (NH EPSCoR), with co-organizers Brittney Van Der Werff (RIO-NM/NM EPSCoR Communication and Outreach Manager), and Carol Wilbeck (NE EPSCoR). The session focused on building consensus around EDOCS enhancements and using jurisdiction feedback (gathered via pre-session poll) to guide priorities for improving reporting consistency and usability across EPSCoR. 

Flash Talk Contributions

“Uncovering the Black Box of Machine Learning Models for PFAS Groundwater Occurrence” 

In the flash talk lineup, Runwei Li (NMSU), Assistant Professor, presented work benchmarking explainable machine-learning models for predicting PFAS groundwater occurrence and identifying dominant contamination drivers using SHAP interpretability methods. 

“Automated Multimodal Spectro-microscopy and Its Application for Halide-Based Solid-State Batteries” 

Dongchang Chen (UNM), Assistant Professor, also gave a flash talk sharing his work on an automated multimodal spectro-microscopy platform for halide-based solid-state batteries, highlighting how it reveals connections between microstructural and chemical properties. 

Poster Sessions

A number of New Mexico researchers presented a poster:

• Lakma Abeyratne (NMSU), Postdoc working with Assistant Professor Houqian Li (NMSU) on his “@NASA EPSCoR Research Fellows Award.”
   
• Sujaan Aryal (UNM), PhD student and part of NSF FEC project, “Harnessing Controlled Environment Agriculture to Secure Sustainability and Economic Growth.”
   
• Dongchang Chen (UNM), Assistant Professor, and PI on NSF Research Fellows project, “Developing A Coupled Multi-Energy-Scale Spectroscopic and Microscopic Analytical Approach for Halide-based Solid-State Batteries.” 
   
• Maryam Hojati (UNM), Assistant Professor and New Mexico PI for NSF FEC project, “Transforming Wastes Into Economic Assets for Sustainability, Resilience, and Prosperity by a Novel Negative Emission Technology.” 
   
• Raisa Islam (NMT), PhD student and part of the NSF E-CORE project, “Research Infrastructure Optimization for New Mexico.”  
   
• Abdul Khaliq (NMSU), PhD student and part of NSF E-RISE project, “Forest Research for New Mexico Water and Carbon Management.”
   
• Galen Oston (UNM), Undergraduate student on NSF FEC project, “Harnessing Controlled Environment Agriculture to Secure Sustainability and Economic Growth.”
   
• Leila Shahriari (UNM), Project Coordinator for NSF FEC project, “Transforming wastes Into Economic Assets for Sustainability, Resilience, and Prosperity by a Novel Negative Emission Technology.”
   
• Hamideh Shojaeian (UNM), Research Assistant for NSF FEC project, “Transforming Wastes Into Economic Assets for Sustainability, Resilience, and Prosperity by a Novel Negative Emission Technology.”
   
• Jingjing Wang (UNM), Assistant Professor, 2025 NM EPSCoR Mentor Award winner, and New Mexico PI for NSF FEC project, “Harnessing Controlled Environment Agriculture to Secure Sustainability and Economic Growth.” 
   
• Juchao Yan (ENMU), Professor and PI for DOE EPSCoR project, “Use of Carbonyl as an Infrared Reporter for Probing the Nature of Charges in Donor-Acceptor Type Conjugated Molecules.”:

Additional New Mexico Attendees and NM EPSCoR Connections

In addition to formal presenters, Summit attendees also included New Mexico faculty, students, project staff, and partners with EPSCoR connections. 

• Stephen Gomez (SFCC), Department Chair and Co-PI on NSF FEC project, “Harnessing Controlled Environment Agriculture to Secure Sustainability and Economic Growth.” 
   
• Sungjin Kim (UNM), Assistant Professor and Co-PI on NSF FEC project, “Transforming Wastes into Economic Assets for Sustainability, Resilience, and Prosperity by a Novel Negative Emission Technology.”
   
• Tuan Le (NMSU), Assistant Professor and PI on NSF EPSCoR Research Fellows project, “Deep Generative Models for Analysis and Visualization of Scientific Texts.”
   
• Lorie Liebrock (NMT), former Director of the NMCCE and Co-PI on NSF E-CORE project, “Research Infrastructure Optimization for New Mexico.”
   
• Marcy Litvak (UNM), Professor and PI of NSF E-RISE project, “Forest Research for New Mexico Water and Carbon Management.”
   
• Efren Lopez Morales (NMSU), Assistant Professor and contributor to NSF E-RISE project, “Research Center for Distributed Resilient and Emergent-Intelligence-Based Additive Manufacturing.”
   
• Chaitanya Mahajan (NMSU), Assistant Professor and part of NSF E-RISE project, “Research Center for Distributed Resilient and Emergent-Intelligence-Based Additive Manufacturing.”
   
• Ludi Miao (NMSU), Assistant Professor and PI for NSF Research Fellows project, “Engineering Superconductivity in 5d Transition Metal Oxide Heterostructures.”
   
• Fernando Moreu (UNM), Associate Professor and PI for NSF Collaborative Research project,  “Infusing Community-centered Data Science into Undergraduate Engineering Curricula.”
   
• Lynn Nordstrom, Project Evaluator for multiple NSF EPSCoR projects in New Mexico.
   
• Nabanita Saikia (NMHU), Assistant Professor and NSF E-CORE, “Research Infrastructure Optimization for New Mexico” project Seed Award recipient. 
   
• Debra Sariñana (NM EPSCoR State Committee), New Mexico State Representative, District 21 in Bernalillo County
   
• Bill Soules (NM EPSCoR State Committee), New Mexico State Senator, District 37, Doña Ana County

Taken together, the New Mexico cohort represented the full array of people invested in the success of EPSCoR in our state and underscored the thriving New Mexico research ecosystem that connects us all.