New Mexico Section sponsors the 35th Rio Grande Symposium on Advanced Materials

The Rio Grande Symposium on Advanced Materials was held on Nov. 3, 2025, in Albuquerque, N.M. This annual event is a regional symposium and includes researchers from Sandia National Labs, University of Texas at El Paso, University of New Mexico, New Mexico Tech, Los Alamos National Lab, Colorado School of Mines, and other institutions.

The keynote speaker for the Kreidl Memorial lecture was Thomas Ackerson from Blue Origin. This year the symposium included the first ever “Career Perspectives” session which hosted three esteemed professionals (Tom Ackerson from Blue Origin, Chelsey Hargather from LANL, and Shalayna Smith from UTEP) to share their opinions and advice on navigating a career in materials science.

RGSAM is an excellent venue for students to give presentations and posters. Awards were given for outstanding posters and presentations as shown below. The event had 137 registered attendees and 97 submitted abstracts (59 oral presentations and 38 posters).

Congratulations to the following award winners:

Undergraduate Posters:

1. Holden Chavez, SNL/UNM
2. Louis Sanchez, UNM
3. Emil Guibadoulline, SNL/UNM

Graduate/Professional Posters:

1. Roy Herrera Navarro, UTEP
2. Amrutdyuti Swamy, NMT
3. Amanda Peretti, SNL

Student Presentations:

1. John O’Connell, NMT
2. Zachary Barker, UTEP
3. Sofia Pinzon, UTEP

The conference is sponsored by the local chapters of several professional societies with organization rotating between the societies yearly.

Thanks to these societies for putting on the conference:

• American Society for Metals, ASM
• American Chemical Society, ACS
• American Institute of Chemical Engineers, AIChE
• American Ceramic Society, ACerS
• American Vacuum Society, AVS
• American Nuclear Society, ANS