Donald Leon Sandoval
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Biography
(MSME '91, Ph.D. '95) was named "Most Promising Scientist" at the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC) held October 11, 1997, in Houston, Texas.A Technical Staff Member with Los Alamos National Laboratory's Applied Theoretical and Computational Physics Division, Dr. Sandoval is charged with the testing and certification of a primary simulation code being developed as part of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative. As part of a core group working to develop and analyze techniques to explore fundamental science issues, he has developed state-of-the-art methods in direct numerical simulation of turbulence effects.
Dr. Sandoval first worked for Los Alamos as an undergraduate summer student in 1984. He became a graduate research assistant at the UW in May 1988, working on the direct numerical simulation of turbulent two-phase flows with Professor Jim Riley. He received his Ph.D. in August 1995 then took a one-year post-doctoral position at Los Alamos. Because of his exceptional talent and motivation, he was promoted to Technical Staff Member prior to the completion of this appointment. The HENAAC award recognizes Dr. Sandoval for his achievements and his potential to make significant future contributions to science and engineering.
Dr. Sandoval's avocational achievements are equally impressive. The great-great grandson of New Mexico weavers and santeros, he honors his Hispanic heritage with his own award-winning innovative rugs and tapestries. He is learning Santero art - the art of carving and painting on wood panels.
This article was adapted from the Fall 1997 ME Newsletter.
