Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
7/17/2015
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) announced this week that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Mexico (UNM) that will maintain the two institutions’ decades-long history of research partnerships. The pact establishes a "Strategic Alliance" at the university’s Centennial Engineering Center, the news release says. According to a statement by Paul Hommert, president and director of SNL, the partnership will "strengthen both organizations by exchanging personnel, developing innovative joint research programs and educating the next generation of national security leaders." In addition to personnel recruitment, the pact identifies several areas of focus for collaborative national security research, including nuclear engineering and high energy density science, the release says.
The collaboration will also include an Inter-Institutional Visitor Agreement, "which allows direct collaborations without formal agreements," according to the announcement. It adds that SNL and UNM have signed similar agreements in recent years, with "research pacts dating back to 1982." Sandia spokesman Jim Danneskiold told NS&D Monitor that in addition to the research partnerships, the two institutions have also filed joint patents. Danneskiold added that the partnership enables UNM students not only to contribute to the lab’s research projects, but also become “part of that next generation that replaces the knowledge base” as nuclear weapons program personnel retire.
