News Archives

RSS Feed

Carol Jones Adkins recognized as CBE Distinguished Alum

October 14, 2015

Carol Jones AdkinsThe University of New Mexico School of Engineering has announced its Distinguished Alumni Award honorees and the event  is scheduled for October 15 at the Embassy Suites.

The 2015 CBE honoree is:
Carol L. Adkins, a graduate of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Adkins, of Albuquerque, is director of the Energy Technologies and System Solutions Center at Sandia National Laboratories. She received her bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from UNM in 1981 and her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1987.  She has served in a variety of roles at Sandia, including in supercritical carbon dioxide cleaning R&D, co-leading the Advanced Wafer Cleaning Project, and leading the CFC+3 replacement R&D from 1987-1996. In 1995, she received the Department of Energy IWP/OIT Technology Commercialization Award for her work in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Cleaning. Adkins has served as deputy director of the nuclear weapons science and technology strategic area and the principal program director for the Defense Security Program. She served on the National Academies Board on Manufacturing, Engineering and Design from 2003-2006. In 2007, she served on the National Academies committee to assess the continuing need and value of the defense national stockpile, and the Panel on Manufacturing Engineering that assessed NIST’s Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. She has mentored a number of undergraduate engineers at Caltech, and supported women at Sandia as co-chair of the Sandia Women’s Action Network. Adkins is the chair of the UNM Chemical & Biological Engineering Advisory Board and the UNM deputy campus executive at Sandia. In addition, Adkins was an author of the UNM-Sandia Strategic Alliance Memorandum of Understanding, signed by both institutions in July 2015.