5 Sandia Labs scientists earn 2024 Black Engineer of the Year awards

Capping off Black History Month, Albuquerque’s Sandia National Laboratories announced Wednesday that five of its scientists earned 2024 Black Engineer of the Year Awards.

Black Engineer of the Year Awards annually recognize the nation’s best and brightest engineers, scientists and technology experts.

The awards include Science Spectrum Trailblazer, Modern Day Technology Leader, Most Promising Engineer in Industry and the Senior Investigator Award.

The winners:

Michelle Collins started at Sandia seven years ago. She was one of two electrical engineers who helped define the entire architecture of the system her group was developing. Today, she leads a product realization team within one of Sandia’s system engineering groups. In her time at the labs, Collins and her teams have won National Nuclear Security Administration Defense Program Awards of Excellence and two employee recognition awards.

Anthony Sanders was drawn to engineering while learning to record and produce music. Sanders has been with Sandia for 16 years, working in various engineering roles.

Today, Sanders uses his technical background by providing educational support to disenfranchised and underrepresented youth in Albuquerque.

Sean Harris was working at a Best Buy in high school when his interest in information technology sparked. It was there that he was introduced to an Oracle-based point-of-sale and back-end system.

Fast-forward a few years and Harris was working with the Oracle Middleware Team at Sandia as a summer intern. He has now been with Sandia for nearly 20 years working in various capacities across Enterprise Technology Systems and cybersecurity efforts supporting the intelligence community.

Harris currently serves as deputy director of the Field Intelligence Element and is senior manager of Sandia’s High Security Operations Cyber and IT organization. His work has been critical in leading efforts in support of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate cybersecurity mission.

Nicole Jackson credits her early exposure at home to the arts and musical training with helping her in her work at Sandia.

Jackson’s work as senior member of the technical staff centers around cultivating ways to help communities adapt to a changing climate while sustainably developing and managing their natural resources.

In her almost five years at Sandia, Jackson has built a professional reputation both within the Labs and industry. In 2023, she was nominated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program to the Integrated Hydro-Terrestrial Modeling Coordinating Group for federal and non-federal scientists, managers and their partners.

Jackson mentors STEM students of all levels to encourage them to enter scientific fields.

Rigo Tibi joined Sandia in 2016, bringing with him an impressive background in academia and industry for his research in seismic events.

As a principal member of Sandia’s technical staff, Tibi researches and develops techniques to improve monitoring of underground nuclear explosions.

In Tibi’s seven years at Sandia, he has authored an impressive 11 peer-reviewed publications and two technical reports. He is highly regarded and recognized within the international and national treaty monitoring and seismology communities.