Two ORNL staff receive 2024 Great Minds in STEM Luminary award

Verónica Melesse Vergara and Felipe Polo-Garzon receive Luminary Awards for their achievements leading, collaborating and initiating key programs and research in their respective fields. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Verónica Melesse Vergara and Felipe Polo-Garzon, two staff members at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been honored with Luminary Awards from Great Minds in STEM, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting STEM careers in underserved communities.

The Luminary Award is presented to engineers, scientists and technology professionals who represent corporate and government agencies from multiple industries and sectors. The award recognizes their achievements leading, collaborating and initiating key programs and research in their respective fields. All Luminary honorees were chosen through a competitive peer-review selection process by the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation, or HENAAC.

Verónica Melesse Vergara, head of the Operations Section in the National Center for Computational Sciences at ORNL, has been awarded the 2024 Great Minds in STEM Luminary Award. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Verónica Melesse Vergara, head of the Operations Section in the National Center for Computational Sciences at ORNL, was honored with the 2024 Luminary Award for her exceptional technical expertise in high-performance computing, or HPC, her national and international recognition as a leader in the field, and her dedication to broadening participation in HPC. Melesse Vergara brings over a decade of experience to the industry and has played a pivotal role as the acceptance testing lead for two of the world's most powerful supercomputers: Summit and Frontier. Both systems, housed at ORNL's Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), were recognized as the fastest supercomputers upon their launch in 2018 and 2022, respectively.

"I was honored to nominate Ms. Verónica G. Melesse Vergara for the 2024 HENAAC Awards," OLCF Program Director Ashley Barker said. "Her exceptional technical expertise in HPC, her national and international leadership in the field, and her unwavering commitment to broadening participation in HPC are just a few of the reasons she is so deserving of this prestigious recognition."

Melesse Vergara is also dedicated to advancing the Hispanic and Latin American community in HPC. She co-leads the cross-institutional initiative Americas HPC Collaboration, which aims to connect researchers in Latin America and the Caribbean with resources and mentorship opportunities in the United States while raising awareness about the opportunities available at DOE national laboratories. Through her partnerships within the Americas HPC Collaboration network, she has hosted virtual tutorials on HPC topics in Spanish for undergraduate students, served as an invited speaker at the Conference and played a vital role in establishing an official chapter for Women in HPC in Latin America.

Felipe Polo-Garzon, catalytic chemist in ORNL's Surface Chemistry and Catalysis group, has been awarded the 2024 Great Minds in STEM Luminary Award. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Felipe Polo-Garzon, catalytic chemist at ORNL, received the 2024 Luminary Award for his outstanding research expertise, self-teaching ability and passion for his culture and community. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at ORNL, Polo-Garzon has been on the chemical sciences research staff since 2019, working on the fundamental understanding of catalytic mechanisms and kinetics in energy conversions. Polo-Garzon's research interests deal with the development of reactivity descriptors for heterogeneous catalysis, as well as the elucidation of governing reaction mechanisms through in-situ and operando characterization techniques, kinetic analysis and computational tools.

"Felipe carved his reputation as a driver of science at ORNL, and has played a critical role in our collaborations, bringing a personal, congenial attitude along with research acumen that far exceeds many of his contemporaries. Our group relies on Felipe to make both personal and professional connections that build confidence and trust among all contributors," said Zili Wu, group leader of surface chemistry at ORNL. "It is this built trust, which permeates our organization, that has fast-tracked scientific results and advances and improved workplace well-being and job satisfaction among all of those who have the opportunity to interact and collaborate with Felipe."

Polo-Garzon has volunteered with Centro Hispano, an organization that works to raise awareness for the exceptional contributions of the Latino community in Appalachia. One of his involvements has been through the Latinos Empowered to Advocate and Dream Mentorship program, which serves to foster leadership development skills, public speaking, teamwork and advocacy while exploring postsecondary education and career options.

The Great Minds in STEM Conference, formerly the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference, has been a national leader in STEM for more than 35 years.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.