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Falling Leaves & Flying
Balloons |
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Signs of autumn. For some
reason, it seems as if fall has come upon us a bit sooner than usual this year.
I wasn't quite prepared to pull out the sweaters and put away the
sandals.
Cold or not, October in
northern New Mexico is a wonderful time to enjoy the glorious colors as the
aspens turn— and of course, only in New Mexico can you enjoy the breathtaking
sight of hundreds of balloons flying through our beautiful skies. I encourage
each of you to take the time to get out with your family, relax, and take in
this magnificent sight. (Don't forget your camera.)
Make it a wonderful
October!
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| Andrew Baca and Abba
Technologies Win Big |
 
Andrew Baca has been
named 2006 Minority Male Entrepreneur of the Year by the U.S. Department of
Commerce—and his business, Abba Technologies, has been named 2006
Minority Supplier Firm of the Year. The awards were presented September 1 in
Washington, D.C. Abba, based in Albuquerque, specializes in enterprise-class
information technology strategies.
When Baca joined Abba in
1997, the company had seven employees, and all its business came from Los Alamos
National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. Under Baca's leadership,
Abba has grown to 46 employees and has diversified its client list to include
federal and private sector organizations throughout the Southwest.
Before coming to Abba,
Andrew held positions at IBM in systems and applications software. "This honor
means a lot to me." "My family history is part of why I made Abba Technologies
an employee-owned company." "The entrepreneurial spirit is in my blood, starting
with my grandfather, who turned thirty acres in Belen into a successful gas
station, which my father's generation then turned into an auto
dealership."
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| Creation & Growth of
Hi-Tech Companies |
In an effort to meet the
requirements of its Community Commitment Plan, Los Alamos National
Security (LANS) will be soliciting proposals for projects that promote
regional economic development, technology commercialization, and company
formation. The proposals must be for projects that use Laboratory technology and
expertise in a New Mexico based start-up or small company.
Proposals submitted for
funding by LANS Acceleration Fund must develop and refine novel
solutions for which strong market demand has been demonstrated and through which
regional economic development can be achieved. Evaluation criteria include
regional impact, team composition, technical feasibility, market opportunity,
and the availability of matching funds or in-kind contributions.
For more information
contact Belinda Padilla at 505- 667-9896 or at
bee@lanl.gov.
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| Solemn Ceremony at
Memorial |
On September 11, the
Laboratory and the Los Alamos chapter of the Retired and Senior Volunteer
Program (RSVP) marked the fifth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
During a commemoration and recognition ceremony held outside the National
Security Sciences Building, a memorial wreath was placed at the Lab's Pentagon
9/11 Memorial to honor the victims in the Pentagon and the men, women, and
children on Flight 177.
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| Partnership to Help Small
Businesses |
Good news for small
businesses in New Mexico: At a ceremony on September 27, Los Alamos National
Laboratory formally entered into a partnership with Sandia National
Laboratories when the two laboratories signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) for the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program. As a result,
the two labs will work together to manage this innovative statewide
program.
Assistance from the labs
will focus on addressing specific technical and business issues. To qualify,
businesses must be small businesses, located in New Mexico, be for-profit, and
certify that the assistance requested is not available at reasonable cost
through private sources.
The New Mexico
Laboratory Partnership Credit Act made the Small Business Assistance Program
possible. State legislators who played key roles in support of the program
joined in the ceremony.
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| Leaders Visit Cultural
Sites |
Lab and community leaders
had an opportunity to learn about culturally significant resources during a
recent tour. Los Alamos County Manager Max Baker, Cochiti Pueblo Governor
Regis Pecos, Rio Arriba County Manager Lorenzo Valdez, Laboratory
Director Mike Anastasio, the Lab's Associate Director for Environmental
Programs Andy Phelps, and Community Programs Office (CPO) Director
Lillian Montoya- Rael, were among those visiting sites.
The tour began at the
Bradbury Science Museum and included an introduction by Brad Vierra of
the Lab's Ecology and Air Quality Division. Among the sites visited were Cave
Kiva in lower Mortandad Canyon, the ruins near Fuller Lodge, and the Romero
Cabin in downtown Los Alamos.
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| Storyteller's Legacy
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Tewa storyteller and
linguist Esther Martinez, also known as P'oe Tswa (Blue Water),
received one of the nation's highest honors for artists in September. Martinez
was honored by the National Endowment for the Arts, along with eleven other folk
and traditional artists, as a 2006 National Heritage Fellow.
The award was given in
recognition of Martinez's life work preserving the Tewa language and Tewa
traditions. According to her grandson, Matthew Martinez, Martinez received a
standing ovation at the NEA awards ceremony.
We are deeply saddened to
report that Esther Martinez died in an Espanola traffic accident while returning
from the awards ceremony in Washington. Two of her daughters were injured but
are reported to be recovering. Our thoughts are with them, and our condolences
go out to the Martinez family and the Ohkay Owingeh community.
In transmitting the Tewa
language and traditions to future generations, Esther Martinez leaves a
tremendous legacy.
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| "United in a New
Way" |
The Lab's 2006 United Way
Campaign, United in a New Way, began in Los Alamos on September 25 with a
kick- off event in Central Park Square. The campaign will end on October 20.
Organizers hope the shorter campaign will provide better focus and encourage
workers to donate early and generously.
A pledge from Los Alamos
National Security to match employee contributions one- for-one— up to $1
million—will provide even more encouragement. The pledge is a component of
the LANS Community Commitment Plan and will double the impact of each
employee's contribution. If you are or know a Laboratory employee, please
encourage them to make a contribution to United Way.
This year's campaign
features the Pirates of the Hill Treasure Hunt, which began the day of
the kick- off. The treasure hunt prize will be a trip to Disneyland or Las
Vegas. Laboratory employees and the community are eligible to participate in the
hunt.
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| Water for Chimayo
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According to a story in the
Rio Grande Sun, completion of a project to supply water to approximately
150 Chimayo homes has been moved back a month, from November to December. But
whatever month the project is completed, it will be welcome. Many of the homes
in the project area have been in dire straits for some time, with some getting
their water from temporary emergency tanks.
Senators Pete Domenici
and Jeff Bingaman helped obtain federal funding to the complete
project in the face of steeply rising construction costs.
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| Small Businesses
Honored |
On September 13, the Bradbury
Science Museum was the venue for an awards luncheon honoring four small
businesses who do business with the Lab. Each business was nominated by a Lab
procurement contract specialist to compete for the Regional Small Business
Subcontractor of the Year award, given by the Small Business
Administration (SBA). The Lab's Small Business Office partnered with
the SBA in honoring the businesses.
Each of the following
companies was nominated for excellence in customer interface, technical
capabilities, and cost, delivery, and quality performance:
Los
Alamos Technical Associates
Networx,
Inc, Albuquerque
Tech
Source, Albuquerque
Sicorp,
Albuquerque
According to Dennis
Roybal, the Laboratory's Small Business Program Team Manager, more than a
thousand small businesses do business with the Laboratory. "So, when a
procurement contract specialist nominates one of our small business
subcontractors to compete in the SBA competition," Roybal said, "it's a huge
honor."
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| Preparing for Potential
Emergencies |
Staff from the Community
Programs Office (CPO) joined other Lab employees on September 20 for one of the
Lab's periodic emergency response exercises to prepare them for real-life
emergencies. During these exercises, the Lab's Emergency Response Team,
CPO, other Lab organizations, and Los Alamos County work together to respond to
a mock emergency over a period of several hours as if the event were actually
taking place.
CPO's response role is to
field questions from community members, the media, and regional government
officials. Our mandate is simple: providing citizens with access to the most
accurate information from the Emergency Response Team has on all the facts known
at a given time.
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| Clean-Up Test a
Success |
The Lab's Environmental
Corrective Actions Project (EP-CAP) recently cleaned up an estimated
one-third of an underground solvent-vapor plume at one of the Lab's material
disposal areas. The clean-up was part of a pilot program to study the
effectiveness of soil vapor extraction (SVE) in removing hazardous chemicals
from the ground.
A commercially available
technology, soil vapor extraction uses a vacuum unit sunk into the ground near a
chemical plume to extract substances such as diesel fuel and dry- cleaning
solvents. The vacuum pulls vapors out of the ground into vessels containing
granular-activated carbon capable of absorbing the contaminants.
Project members believe the
SVE system may provide a long-lasting, economical option for cleaning up the
ground and reducing risks posed by the chemicals.
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| Kudos!
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Kudos also to the following
organizations who received grant funding from the Consortium of Major LANL
Subcontractors:
Taos DaVinci Project
Northern
New Mexico College
Taos
County Economic Development Corp.
Espanola
Valley Fiber Arts Center
Santa
Fe Farmer's Market Institute
Los
Alamos Commerce and Development Corp.
R&D Kudos:
The following five Laboratory researchers were selected by Lab Director
Mike Anastasio as 2007 Laboratory fellows, the Laboratory's highest honor
for technical accomplishments:
Petr Chylek—a world recognized expert in optical sciences, aerosol
physics, atmospheric science, and climate change research
Keith Despain—a recognized authority in weapons design, having
provided substantial contributions to the nation's weapons community
Rajan Gupta—a leading figure in the international high-energy physics
community
Joyce Guzik—with a record of high quality contributions to the
nuclear weapons program and recognized for her unclassified work on stellar
evolution and pulsation
Beth Nordholt—with an international reputation in quantum cryptology
and space science, having developed instruments for the Cassini, Deep Space 1,
and Genesis missions
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| COMMUNITY CALENDAR
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Oct.
4: Patent Writing Workshop, Santa Fe
Oct. 4-5: JSEC
Statewide Convention, Espanola
Oct. 6: Taste of the Enchanted Valley,
Espanola
Oct. 6: Proposal Writing Workshop,
Albuquerque
Oct. 10: Executive Leadership
Seminar, Espanola
Oct.
11: Bookkeeping the Easy Way Workshop, Espanola
Oct.
12: QNM All About the Customer Workshop, Las Vegas
Oct. 12: "A Taste of
Autumn" Scholarship, White Rock
Oct. 20-22: NM Bioneers Conference,
Taos
Oct. 21: LANL Foundation Annual
Banquet, Santa Fe
Nov.
15: Certified Bookkeeping Course, Santa Fe
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