Over the past three years, Sandia developed a strategic direction made up of seven priorities to guide the Labs for the next 20 years. Each priority has a team behind it, working to implement the strategy. The teams have brought these priorities to life and achieved significant accomplishments in each of the seven areas.
Hundreds of cybersecurity professionals and college students gathered around the country Nov. 16 for a day of cyber wargames. The event, DOE’s roughly annual CyberForce Competition, was created to teach and inspire the next generation of cybersecurity professionals by giving them an opportunity to apply their skills against realistic problems. In its second year as host, Sandia worked with 10 teams in this year's event.
Labs Director Steve Younger gave his annual State of the Labs address on Oct. 30, encouraging Sandians to pause and think about what we’ve accomplished and where Sandia is headed. He described numerous accomplishments and praised Labs employees for taking intellectual leadership in defining the future of nuclear deterrence.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, Calif., visited Sandia/California on Nov. 4, where he met with Andy McIlroy, associate labs director for Integrated Security Solutions, and received briefings on a variety of topics.
Nearly 200 people gathered around the flagpole at the Sandia/California campus on Nov. 11 to honor and respect America’s veterans. The ceremony marking Veterans Day was organized by the Military Support Committee.
Sandia celebrated the 100th anniversary of Veteran’s Day in the Steve Schiff Auditorium on Nov. 7. President Woodrow Wilson first enacted the day honoring veterans one year after the Armistice ending World War One.
The venerable R&D 100 contest, slightly more than 50 years old, has a new owner, and the competition continues. Competing in an international pool of universities, corporations and government labs, Sandia inventions captured four R&D 100 Awards this year, as well as two environmental and one business award.
Army veteran Mark Small started working at Sandia as an intern through the former Wounded Warrior Career Development Program, now called the Exceptional Warrior Career Development Program. Working with Sandia mentors, he completed bachelor's and master's degrees and secured a staff position at the Labs. He is one of the program’s success stories, and he now works to recruit other veterans to Sandia.
Sandia’s built environment tells a story of its adaptation and vision for the future. The buildings and structures reflect a rich and varied 70-year architectural history that first began to take shape in the fall of 1945, when the Los Alamos based Z Division started moving down to the site of the current Albuquerque campus.
As part Sandia’s 70th anniversary celebration, Labs employees were treated to an insightful, humorous and engaging presentation, “70 years of Sandia: How did we get here?” by Sandia historian Rebecca Ullrich. During the presentation, Rebecca described the Labs’ path from its beginnings as part of Los Alamos National Laboratory to the launch of Sandia Corporation and the Albuquerque campus to the expansion of the Labs to its current state.