We are continuing our February Spotlight on the STEM Advancement Program, this time through one of our students’ perspective. To date, 25 New Mexico students have been part of STEMAP – 11 students in 2014 and 14 students in 2015. Brianne Willis is a student at Eastern New Mexico University and one of the 25 STEMAP students. Brianne spent her STEMAP Summer doing research on “Assessing Uranium Contamination on the Navajo and Laguna Reservations.”

The Externship Program is a research exchange program that allows New Mexico graduate students (with an existing assistantship) to spend a semester or summer doing research at a partnering New Mexico university or research facility. This report is from New Mexico Tech student Adam Martinez about his externship in California at Trevi Systems.

It's time for another NM EPSCoR Spotlight! This month we will shine our spotlight on Dr. Michael Heagy, coordinator for the STEM Advancement Program. Dr. Heagy is a Chemistry professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology and is also on the Solar Energy research team for NM EPSCoR.

In order to put the focus on our amazing people in the Energize New Mexico project, we've started a new monthly series on the blog—NM EPSCoR Spotlight! Each month we will feature one participant and one student in the project and learn a little more about where they come from, and what they do for Energize New Mexico. To kick-start our new endeavor, NM EPSCoR's first Spotlight features our Diversity Coordinator, Chelsea Chee.

Last month, we announced (via email) that members and organizations of our Bioalgal Component team have been nominated for the "Who Makes A Difference" Algae Industry Magazine (AIM) 2015 International Readers Poll. According to the Magazine, the Poll's mission is to enable their readers to "recognize and reward innovation and excellence; convey who and what make a difference in the algae industry; celebrate innovative people, companies, laboratories, and technologies; and give AIM readers a go-to source for algae industry resources." The winners were announced on January 15th, and we're happy to say that our people and places took home awards in the categories for which they were nominated!