Emil Sandoz-Rosado earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the Rochester Institute Technology. During his undergrad years, he was a student member of the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Alpha Epsilon Pi, and a student manager at Crossroads Cafe.
With the support of a GEM fellowship, he went on to earn a master’s, also in electrical engineering, from Rochester Institute of Technology. According to GEM, the organization has graduated over 3,000 researchers, professors, and inventors, including over 200 men and women with doctorates in the physical sciences, life sciences, and engineering.
At RIT, Sandoz-Rosado served as a NASA Fellow and was a member of the Society for Tribology and Lubrication Engineers, and Engineers Without Borders. As a research assistant, he worked on design tools for the improvement of thermoelectric generators for sustainable energy applications. He also served as an Engineering Co-op (Advanced Engineering) at Delphi and an Engineering Co-op (Product Engineer) at Cogniscent.
Later, Sandoz-Rosadoa won the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Harriett Jenkins Fellowship, which enabled him to receive his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Harriett Jenkins Fellowship seeks to increase the number of graduate degrees awarded to underrepresented persons in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
As a research candidate at Columbia University, he conducted tribological research on nano-scale and macro-scale systems. He was also a NASA Jenkins Fellow at the Center for Nanotechnology of Ames Research Center, Mountain View California. He conducted research into the growth and characterization of vertically-oriented graphene for the purposes of enhancing electrical contacts.
“When I was a doctoral student, the field of 2-D materials was completely new,” Sandoz-Rosado said in an interview with the Army Research Laboratory. “I began looking at the mechanical properties of graphene, and when I came to ARL, I continued examining the mechanical properties of graphene and have since transitioned to studying completely novel 2-D polymers.”
In the photo taken at a recent BEYA STEM Conference, Dr. Sandoz-Rosadois displaying the results of high-impact research that support the protection of our men and women in uniform. During a recent interview, he had this advice to share with students interested in a STEM career.
“My main advice would be to constantly challenge yourself,” Sandoz-Rosado said. “It is impossible to make leaps in learning without taking risks and entering areas you don’t feel comfortable initially. Take on problems that you don’t know the answer to and can’t look up – conditioning yourself to think critically means that you will feel lost in the beginning – and the largest part of STEM is asking questions to which there are no readily available answers.”
The U.S. Army Research Laboratory is a premier laboratory for land forces and is part of the Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM), which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America’s Soldiers. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army’s premier provider of materiel readiness.
For more information on jobs and opportunities with the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM), and the he U.S. Army Materiel Command, visit the BEYA STEM Conference.
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