Navajo engineer receives presidential award

Native Engineer Receives Top Award From President Obama

By Lucinda Hughes-JuanAs a young child, Stanley Atcitty, a member of the Navajo Nation from Shiprock, New Mexico, recalls taking toys apart and building them back together. He was always fascinated by how things worked, and even built his own bicycle out of salvaged parts he retrieved from an old junk yard.

Today he continues to excel as in innovative engineer, and was recently honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). At a White House Ceremony on July 31, Atcitty accepted the PECASE, one of the highest honors given by the U.S. government to individuals in the science and engineering professions in the early stages of their independent research careers.

“Discoveries in science and technology not only strengthen our economy, they inspire us as a people… and the impressive accomplishments of today’s awardees so early in their careers promise even greater advances in the years ahead,” President Barack Obama stated in a White House press release.

President Obama named 13 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded researchers as recipients of the award. Dr. Atcitty, a principal member of Sandia National Laboratories’ technical staff in New Mexico, was one of 96 researchers chosen nationally for the award in 2012.Comment:  For more on Navajo science, see Navajo Engineer Helped Develop Curiosity and Navajo Undergrad Studies Climate Change.