Freshman Senator Visits IRIS/PASSCAL

On Friday, February 22nd, New Mexico's newest member of the United States Senate, Martin Heinrich, paid a visit to New Mexico Tech, and the IRIS/PASSCAL Instrument Center. Senator Heinrich, who won his seat in the 2012 general election, is a strong advocate for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education, and is the only engineer currently serving in the senate.

Senator Heinrich was given an overview of activities at the school by New Mexico Tech President Dr. Dan Lopez, and also toured the Mechanical Engineering Department.  Dr. Rick Aster escorted Sen. Heinrich on a tour of the PASSCAL Instrument Center, the world’s largest and the nation’s flagship federally-funded lending library of seismology equipment.

At the IRIS/PASSCAL Instrument Center, from Left-Right:  PASSCAL Principal Investigator Rick Aster, Senator Martin Heinrich, New Mexico Tech president Dan Lopez, and graduate research assistant Heather Bloemhard and Software & Control Engineer Allen Farris (of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory).
	Left-Right:  PASSCAL Director Bruce Beaudoin, PASSCAL Principal Investigator Rick Aster, Senator Martin Heinrich, PASSCAL Program Manager James Gridley, and Global Seismographic Network (GSN) Program Manager Kent Anderson.
Rick Aster (left) discusses the PASSCAL mission with Senator Heinrich (center) and NM Tech president Dan Lopez (right).  Kent Anderson of the GSN is standing behind Senator Heinrich.
	Professor Aster shows the senator the inner workings of a semi-permanent broad-band seismic station.

We thank Senator Heinrich and his staff for taking the time visit and learn about IRIS, New Mexico Tech, and the Socorro Community.