RASEM - Squared member receives honors

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Los Alamos student researcher honored by national magazine

The following story came from the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Daily Newsbulletins

Los Alamos student researcher Rosie Talamantes has been named an Employee of the Year by Careers and the disabled Magazine. The Industrial Engineering major and single mother of two will be honored at the magazine's Seventh Annual Awards Reception on May 13 at the Hilton Hotel in Anaheim, California.

The awards reception will be part of Abilities Expo, the largest display in the U.S. of products and services for people with disabilities. Talamantes will receive a plaque and will be featured in the fall edition of the magazine. This is the second consecutive year that a Lab employee has been honored by the magazine: Richard Pearson of Fire Protection (FE-21) was named an Employee of the Year in 1998.

A quadriplegic since 1987, Talamantes has been associated with the Lab since last July. She works offsite, as a member of the Regional Alliance of Science, Engineering and Mathematics (RASEM 2 ), a program funded by the National Science Foundation and located at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces.

RASEM² is a new educational partner of the Lab's University Programs division of the Educational Program Office (STB-UP). The program provides the means, support and encouragement for students with disabilities to overcome the educational barriers they face in considering careers in science, engineering, math and technology.

Talamantes does her research and Lab-related work on FORTRAN programs that deal with molecular modeling. She uses a piece of software known as the "Magic Wand" for accessing university computers.

Talamantes, who wants to teach math following graduate school, mentors other disabled students by telephone or over the Internet, and has been a peer counselor with New Vistas in her community. She also mentors an undergraduate engineering technology student from Espanola at NMSU. The student works at the Lab during the summer through the Undergraduate Student Program.

"I'm very excited to be part of the Lab and the team here at NMSU," Talamantes said, "and I'm so grateful for this grand honor. I'd like to say thanks to everyone on my recruiting team -- Abad Sandoval, Sandra Landry and my mentors including Janie Enter (CST-7) who have given me this opportunity to work at LANL."

Talamantes hopes to take her family to Anaheim to pick up her award. "I know the trip will benefit my children's educational horizon," she said.

--Kay Roybal

“This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative agreement No. HRD 0124198 and HRD 0622930.”

“Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.”

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