New Sandia National Lab Fellowship named after first female nuclear security lab director

Sandia National Laboratories established this week a new fellowship program, which it named after Jill Hruby, its immediate past director and the first woman to direct a National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory.

The Jill Hruby Fellowship Program will provide postdoctoral candidates with a three-year technical leadership development program that includes mentoring by executives and experience with national security policy.

“I am honored to have a fellowship in my name to inspire science and engineering in public service, and that recognizes leadership as an important element of contributing to Sandia Labs and across the Department of Energy,” Hruby said.

The fellowship will begin in fall 2018 with an application deadline of Nov. 1. Candidates will be selected each year with chosen candidates working at either Sandia’s New Mexico or California facility.

The program is designed to prepare the postdoctoral employees to lead technical areas at Sandia, other national laboratories and national security organizations. The participants will conduct independent research that supports Sandia’s vision in collaboration with the laboratories’ scientists and engineers.

“When I was at Los Alamos National Laboratory, I was delighted to see that Sandia had selected Jill Hruby as the first woman to lead a National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory,” Associate Labs Director Susan Seestrom, who was a member of the team that developed the fellowship, said. “Now that I am a Sandia employee, I am impressed with the leadership legacy she left here. I think that the Jill Hruby Fellowship will be a great way to both honor her contributions to Sandia and as a focus to encourage women to think about technical careers at Sandia.”