 Message from the president
Diane Peebles, NMAS President
I am hoping everyone is having a great start to the new year. With the new year, comes the Academy’s new officers and board members. This year, the Board of Directors is putting a significant amount of time and effort into strategic planning for the organization. Over the years, our membership has dropped, along with the number of volunteers and resources to help us run an effective organization.
The need to continue to advocate for and advance science in the state of New Mexico is as great as ever, if not greater. With new tech businesses coming into the state, the opportunities for STEM-trained graduates is continuing to grow. The Board will be carefully evaluating all of the programs we support to make sure we can provide the best impact that we can.
In order to do this, your membership, donations, and help are desperately needed. If you have been a member in the past, but haven’t kept up on your dues, please consider becoming an active member once again. If you are a member, especially our distinguished life members, please consider a donation to the Academy to support the programs you feel most strongly about. For those of you in large organizations with United Way campaigns, we are a certified 501(c)3 organization that can accept your directed campaign contributions.
Thank you for your continuing support.
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Membership
 Our membership is our greatest asset when advocating for science. Members support events such as the Junior Academy, National Youth Science Camp, and the Outstanding Educator awards.
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Meet the board
 New officers joined the board at the January 2024 Board meeting.
President – Dr. Diane E Peebles, Sandia National Labs President-Elect – Dr. David Schultz, Universities Research Association
Vice-President – Dr. Anna Llobet, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Treasurer – Dr. Debra N Thrall, retired
Secretary – Mrs. Malva Knoll, retired
Past President – Dr. Babu Chalamala, Sandia National Labs
Director at Large – Prof. Mubarak Syed, UNM
Director at Large – Dr. Juchao Yan, ENMU
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Lynn Brandvold Awarded NMAS Emeritus Status
 Lynn Brandvold has been elected by the NMAS Board to be a Director Emeritus. This is a non-voting position and she shall serve for life, or until such time as she resigns. A Director Emeritus must have served as a regular voting Director and/or in the position of an officer who has, through his/her service to the Academy, demonstrated considerable contributions.
Lynn Brandvold has been the state Director of the Junior Academy of Science (JAS) since 1999, and will retire at the end of 2023. She leaves behind a legacy of promoting young student scientists for over 30 years. As Director, she solicited professional judges, distributed student research manuscripts to those judges, organized Power Point presentations for student competitors, awarded prizes, and solicited grant funding.
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Outstanding Science Teachers
The Outstanding Science Teacher Award given by the New Mexico Academy of Science honors New Mexico science and math educators. The Academy recognizes educators who provide opportunities for students to succeed in science. The award has been given since 1968 and nominations are open to all preK-12 teachers and all Informal Science educators throughout New Mexico.
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 Mr. Chris Speck, currently teaches 7th grade science and ELA at Garfield STEM School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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 Dr. Roy Biñas Basa, currently serves as Science, Biomedical Science, Clean Energy Technology, Technology, Engineering, and Rocketry Instructor at Twin Buttes Cyber Academy and Zuni High School in the Zuni Public School District. He is also the Zuni Public School District CTE coordinator.
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2023 Annual meeting
 By Brittney Van Der Werff, EPSCor
On November 4th, researchers from across the state convened for the 2023 New Mexico Research Symposium (NMRS), an annual event jointly organized by NM EPSCoR, New Mexico Academy of Science, and the Central New Mexico Local Section of the American Chemical Society.
This year's event opened with a keynote talk by Demitri Maestas, a machine learning practitioner at Sandia National Labs. His talk about the role of artificial intelligence in education, research, and everyday use was the first of many highlights of the day.
Next, 25 oral presenters from five institutions shared their work in six thematic sessions including Water, NASA EPSCoR, Biochemistry and Genomics, Research in New Mexico, Quantum Photonics, and Directed Energy and Renewable Energy.
Shortly after the poster session began and featured poster presentations from over 40 researchers hailing from 14 different institutions.
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NMAS Youth programs
 NM Junior Academy of Science, Grades 6-12
The New Mexico Junior Academy of Science promotes student research. Students compete with a written manuscript and an oral presentation in the Junior Division (grades 6-8) or the Senior Division (grades 9-12). There are cash prizes for up to the top four projects in both divisions at the regional and state levels. The competitions are held in conjunction with the Regional and State Science and Engineering Fairs. Applications are open at the link below (due in February).
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National Youth Science Camp, Grades 11-12
Established in 1963 in West Virginia, the National Youth Science Camp is a free residential honors program for two accomplished high school students from each state in the USA and select international countries. This program is designed to honor and challenge some of the nation’s rising STEAM leaders and provide them with opportunities to engage with STEAM professionals and participate in exciting outdoor activities. The application deadline is February 29.
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New Mexico Journal of Science
 The New Mexico Journal of Science (NMJS) is a journal of scientific papers of topics concerning science in New Mexico.
Are you interested in publishing? Contact Editor Vladislav Sevostianov at vs14@princeton.edu
Abstracts due – July 15
Complete manuscript due – September 1
Peer review completed – October 1
Revised manuscript due – November 1
On-line Publication – February-April of following year
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Are you a superhero?
The New Mexico Academy of Science needs two volunteers to supervise and administer our annual student competition of written and oral presentations about their science research. The Regional Director would run the competition in the Central (Albuquerque) region and the Junior Academy Director would be the overall Director for the competition in all 6 regions and would run the state competition. The competitions are held in conjunction with but are separate from regional science fairs.
If you are a professional interested in working with science students in grades 6-12, this is the perfect opportunity to give back to the science education community by working with and supporting students as they write a scientific research paper and do oral presentations to interested judges.
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Outstanding Scientist Award
 Since 1962, the Academy has intermittently presented awards to distinguished New Mexicans for their outstanding contributions to science or science education. The award is given across all science disciplines for works supporting the purposes of the Academy.
Awardees in the past have included Dr. W. Randolph Lovelace II, Chief of the U.S. Army Air Corps Aero-Medical Laboratory and founder of Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque; Clyde Tombaugh, NMSU, the discoverer of Pluto; and Norris Bradbury, Los Alamos, for whom the Bradbury Museum is named.
Submit a worthy candidate who exemplifies the goals or mission of the New Mexico Academy of Science for this award.
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