Through their work as staff scientists at Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) in Los Alamos, NM, UCCS alums Carlos Maldonado and Gabriel Wilson were among the small team recognized this summer with an R&D 100 Award. Known as the “Oscars of Innovation,” these awards recognize technologies for their ingenuity and potential impact. They span industry, academia and government-sponsored research organizations.
Carlos, the team’s leader, has multiple degrees from UCCS, including a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Aerospace Engineering, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Engineering. Gabriel has undergraduate degrees from CU Boulder, including a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics and a Bachelor of Arts in Astrophysics and Math, and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from UCCS.
Both Carlos and Gabriel worked in the Space Physics and Atmospheric Research Center (SPARC) at the United States Air Force Academy before taking roles at LANL.
Their project, the Compact Space Plasma Analyzer, is a sensor designed to monitor satellite environments and protect assets for commerce and national security applications. The novel compact, rugged, and low-cost sensor measures ion and electron energy, density and temperature, providing critical data on the space environment and potentially hazardous levels of spacecraft charge.
Three years after the initial concept, the Department of Defense Space Test Program deployed the analyzer on the International Space Station for data collection. Los Alamos led the joint entry with the United States Air Force Academy.
In a press release, Los Alamos’s director Thom Mason shared his pride in the award, one of eight LANL-led technologies to be recognized this year.
“As a Department of Energy national lab, part of our mission is to develop technologies that can then be used by companies, academic institutions and other research organizations to enable everything from better energy efficiency to safety and security,” Mason said. “These awards recognize those contributions and are a testament to the cutting-edge work being done at the Laboratory.”
Carlos said he initially chose to attend UCCS because it was close to home and affordable. His initial intention was to transfer to a larger university, but as he spent more time at UCCS, moved up in classes, and gained a broader view of the world, he said he realized that the smaller campus and better student to teacher ratio was ideal.
“Like all college students, I bounced around trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I moved from English to physics, ultimately landing on mechanical engineering,” he said.
It wasn’t long before he found his passion in aerospace and space studies.
“My rocket propulsion professor, Dr. Andrew Ketsdever, really opened our eyes to the possibilities of what we as students could achieve,” Carlos said.
He eventually ended up working in Ketsdever’s research laboratories, subsequently earning bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D .degrees. He received a stipend and tuition through the Air Force Research Laboratory through a funded research program.
“The ability to work and learn under a world-class engineer and scientist changed the trajectory of my career and my life,” Carlos said.
In addition to the R&D 100 Award, Carlos has been awarded numerous grants through the DoD, DOE, and NASA to develop next generation technologies.
“Through these efforts I now lead multiple missions to field scientific payloads into outer space,” he said.
Prior to his time at UCCS, Gabriel worked for the Missile Defense Agency in Fort Greeley, AK for a few years after studying at CU Boulder. After that he said he was looking for a place where he could work in tech, learn coding, electronics and space while at the same time pursue a degree in applied physics.
“I started looking for physics programs, and I found UCCS,” he said. “…and a short decade later had my degree.”
Gabriel received the Charles K. Zalabak Physics Award while attending UCCS along with two mentored doctoral fellowships.
“I took nearly all my classes from Bob Camley, Zbigniew Celinski, Anatoliy Pinchuk and Marek Grabowski,” he said. “They were all fantastic professors and were incredibly supportive and encouraging. It was obvious they genuinely cared about the students.”
He said his time at CU Boulder and later at UCCS set him up for a successful career.
“With this caliber of education, you can definitely crush it at a top-tier research facility,” Gabriel said. “Carlos and I are both from UCCS and doing exactly that.”