The Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), managed and operated by the National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, is one of three National Nuclear Security Administration research and development laboratories in the United States. Their primary mission is to develop, engineer, and test the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons and high technology. Headquartered in Central New Mexico near the Sandia Mountains, on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, Sandia also has a campus in Livermore, California, next to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and a test facility in Waimea, Kauai, Hawaii.
Kristina M. Johnson is an American business executive, engineer, academic, and former government official who served as the 13th chancellor of the State University of New York from September 2017 until June 2020. In June 2020, the Ohio State University Board of Trustees named her as the university's 16th president, succeeding the retiring Michael V. Drake. She has been a leader in the development of optoelectronic processing systems, 3-D imaging, and color-management systems.
Fred Begay, also Fred Young or Clever Fox, was a Navajo/Ute nuclear physicist. Begay was born in Towaoc, Colorado on the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation. His work was in the alternative use of laser, electron and ion beams to heat thermonuclear plasmas for use as alternative energy sources.
The Return of Navajo Boy is a documentary film produced by Jeff Spitz and Bennie Klain about the Cly family, Navajo who live on their reservation. Through them, the film explores several longstanding issues among the Navajo and their relations with the United States government and corporations: environmental racism, white supremacy, media and political representation, off-reservation adoption, and denial of reparations for environmental illnesses due to uranium mining in Monument Valley, Utah, which was unregulated for decades. Bill Kennedy served as the film's executive producer; his late father had produced and directed the earlier silent film The Navajo Boy (1950s), which featured the Cly family.
Turquoise Rose is a 2007 independent drama film co-written and directed by Holt Hamilton that takes place on the Navajo Nation. Turquoise Rose was filmed primarily on the Navajo Nation in Fort Defiance, Arizona, as well as in Phoenix, Arizona. The film is one of the only American films to feature an indigenous Native American lead role for an actress, played by Navajo actress Johnson.
Harrison Begay, also known as Haashké yah Níyá was a renowned Diné (Navajo) painter, printmaker, and illustrator. Begay specialized in watercolors, gouache, and silkscreen prints. At the time of his death in 2012, he was the last living, former student of Dorothy Dunn and Geronima C. Montoya at the Santa Fe Indian School. His work has won multiple awards and is exhibited in museums and private collections worldwide and he was among the most famous Diné artists of his generation.
The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional association with the goal of substantially increasing American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nation and other indigenous peoples of North America representation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and other related disciplines. Its headquarters is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As of May 1, 2013, Sarah EchoHawk is the Chief Executive Officer.
Jennifer Nez Denetdale is a professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico, where she teaches courses in Native American Studies with an emphasis on race, class, and gender. She is the director of the University of New Mexico's Institute for American Research. She also specializes in Navajo history and culture and the effects of colonization and decolonization as it has impacted the Navajo people. She is the chair of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission. Denetdale is also an advocate for students who wish to pursue an education in Indigenous studies, Navajo women, and the LGBTQ+ community.
Nancy B. Jackson is an American chemist. She has done energy research on heterogeneous catalysis and the development of alternative fuels. She also works in the field of chemical nonproliferation, educating chemical professionals on the importance of safe and secure chemical practice in research, teaching and business, in an effort to prevent the misuse of chemicals as "weapons, poisons, explosives or environmental pollutants". She was the first implementer in developing the international Chemical Security Engagement Program. She is active in promoting diversity in STEM fields. She was president of the American Chemical Society in 2011, leading the organization during the International Year of Chemistry. In 2012, she was honored with the AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy.
Noël Mojgan Bakhtian is the director of the Berkeley Lab Energy Storage Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She has served as the director of the Center for Advanced Energy Studies at Idaho National Laboratory and as a policy advisor for the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Jacqueline H. Chen is an American mechanical engineer. She works in the Combustion Research Facility of Sandia National Laboratories, where she is a Senior Scientist. Her research applies massively parallel computing to the simulation of turbulent combustion.
Carol Gardipe is an American geologist, whose career has included positions with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and roles in higher education as a professor and administrator. She is one of the seven founders of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES).
Krystal Tsosie (Diné) is a Navajo geneticist and bioethics at Vanderbilt University. She serves as Co-Principal Investigator on a study that investigates genetic determinants of pre-eclampsia, specifically in pregnant women, with the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
Náníbaaʼ Garrison (Diné) is a bioethicist, geneticist, and associate professor in the Institute for Society and Genetics and Department of Internal Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a member of the Navajo Nation, and her career has focused on studies of health conditions prevalent in, and attitudes toward genetics research among, the Navajo community.
D.Y. Begay is a Navajo textile artist born into the Tó’tsohnii Clan and born from the Táchii'nii Clan.
Karletta Chief is a Diné hydrologist, best known for her work to address environmental pollution on the Navajo Nation and increase the participation of Native Americans in STEM.
Aaron Yazzie is a Diné (Navajo) mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His work involves planetary sample acquisition and handling. He has worked on the Mars Science Laboratory, InSight, and Mars 2020 missions.
Jerry Chris Elliott High Eagle is a physicist and was one of the first Native Americans who worked at NASA. He is most known for his contributions as the lead retrofire officer during Apollo 13, where his actions saved the lives of the three astronauts on board. Elliott's work awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by the President of the United States.
Helen Louise Reed is an American aerospace engineer. Her research interests include hypersonics, energy efficient aircraft, laminar–turbulent transition, and small satellite design. She is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Physical Society, and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
