PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (October 30, 2020) – On its website, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) claims national security has been its business for more than 70 years. It’s delivered the essential science and technology to resolve the nation’s most challenging security issues, including keeping the nation’s nuclear stockpile safe, secure, and effective. As a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), SNL seeks out the best research talent to equip them with world-class tools and facilities and provide them with opportunities to collaborate with experts from a variety of scientific disciplines.
SNL’s Black Leadership Committee (BLC), some of whom are graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), realized SNL had a unique opportunity to build a pipeline for recruitment by connecting with select schools. So they created the Securing Top Academic Research & Talent for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (S.T.A.R.T. HBCU) initiative. Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), who has an ongoing relationship with SNL, was chosen to participate in the initiative, along with Florida A&M University, Norfolk State University, and North Carolina A&T State University.
“The Black Leadership Committee is an employee resource group at SNL that focuses on attracting and retaining African American talent at Sandia,” said PVAMU alumna Rahni Johnson. Johnson is a technical business development specialist at SNL and the program lead for S.T.A.R.T. HBCU. “I, along with other members of BLC, presented S.T.A.R.T. HBCU as a solution to some of the challenges that African Americans face at Sandia when it comes to recruiting and retention. We presented this to Susan [Seestrom] because she is the chief research officer, and Academic Partnerships is housed in her division. Many of us are alumni of these schools and have been recruiting for a long time. We wanted to see a relationship that included but was more than recruiting.”
S.T.A.R.T. HBCU will foster specific academic partnerships to increase research collaborations and expose diverse groups of talented students to the lasting impact they can have by working at a national laboratory. The four universities involved in the program will meet individually with SNL monthly to assess needs and projects. They will meet quarterly as a whole to ensure continued networking and support.
“The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding provides the university with the opportunity to provide students with significant next steps as they move through the S.T.A.R.T. HBCU pipeline,” said PVAMU Vice President for Research & Innovation Magesh Rajan, Ph.D. “This partnership will provide our faculty with more opportunities for research collaborations with the Sandia research community. We have already identified opportunities for possible collaborations with the other universities in the program to conduct research projects that will address some of the grand global challenges. It is more important than ever, in our current climate, to align the efforts of the most brilliant experts to develop research projects and build a pipeline of students prepared and skilled to pursue research as a career path.”
Susan Seestrom – Sandia National Laboratory
Associate Laboratories Director for Advanced Science Technology and Chief Research Officer
Seestrom stated, “This was truly a bottom-up initiative. The BLC said we have the contacts, and this is what we want to do. I’m looking forward to the results of the research partnerships.”
This collaboration between SNL and the four selected universities is based on a collective commitment to go beyond the typical boundaries to build a diverse pipeline that will have a generational impact.
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By Karen B. Cotton