University Libraries Discussion on Native American Work with Renewable Energy

Former UNM Board of Regents member Sandra Begay-Campbell is one of three Native American engineers at Sandia National Laboratory who will talk about their work with renewable energy at Zimmerman Library on Wednesday, Feb. 20. At noon the Indigenous Nations Library Program will host a brown bag discussion in the Herzstein Room, and at 3 p.m., Begay-Campbell, Stanley Atcitty and David Wilson will speak in the Willard Room in the west wing of Zimmerman.

Begay-Campbell, Atcitty and Wilson are all members of the technical staff at SNL. Wilson is a mechanical engineer who obtained his Ph.D. from UNM. He has more than 20 years of research and development engineering experience in energy systems, robotics, automation, and space and defense projects. His areas of research focus on control systems. He is currently developing a power flow control for critical energy infrastructures and aerodynamic blade control to alleviate the loads for large wind turbines.

Atcitty is an electrical engineer with a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech University. He works in the Energy Infrastructure and Distributed Energy Resources Department at SNL. His research interests include power conversion systems and electrochemical capacitors and their application. His current work includes power electronics and energy storage.

Begay-Campbell has a Master’s degree in structural engineering from Stanford University. She has worked extensively in the area of solar engineering and has been involved in efforts to provide solar and wind energy solutions to tribal members in remote areas of the Navajo Reservation.

The Native Pathways Lecture Series is sponsored by the Indigenous Nations Library Program. Both the brown bag discussion and the lecture are free and the public is welcome.

Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu