Events

Have you ever considered how dimples could be used on cars, semi-trucks, airplanes, and even Frisbees? It’s amazing to discover that dimples can make balls travel up to twice as far or drastically cut emissions and drag by harnessing smart designs.

For example, every 10% drag reduction in semi-truck aerodynamics saves the entire US semi-truck fleet $6.83 billion/year in diesel consumption or about $3,416 per semi-truck. This also results in 26.5 million fewer tons of CO2 emitted per year for the whole fleet. But would you believe dimples can also increase heat transfer by 200% or more when done correctly?

Join award-winning nuclear engineer Dr. Sal Rodriguez as he shares his research showing that ample energy and a clean environment can be achieved simultaneously through smart engineering!

Join us on Friday, January 10, at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Doors open at 5:30 pm. The presentation begins at 6:00 pm and ends at 7:30 pm.

BUY YOUR TICKETS

Admission is $12 per person; you must be 21 years old to attend. Admission will provide each guest with one beer ticket. Guests can purchase additional drinks. IDs are required. Please drink responsibly. Please email us with any questions.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

Sal worked at Idaho National Laboratory and then Los Alamos National Laboratory. He currently works at Sandia National Laboratories and has nearly 30 years of service. He is also the Chief Science Officer for Applied Surface Engineering in Albuquerque. His expertise includes nuclear engineering, computational fluid dynamics, turbulence, and high-temperature refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs).

Degrees:

Dr. Sal Rodriguez has a BS in Nuclear Engineering, three master’s in engineering, computation, and mathematics, a PhD in Philosophy and Apologetics, and a PhD in Nuclear Engineering.

Awards:

• Sal was awarded an R&D 100 Award in 2024, an honor given to the top 100 worldwide technologies. The award has earned the descriptive “Nobel Prize of Engineering” and “Oscars of Innovation.”
• Sal was awarded the prestigious Great Minds in Stem’s (GMiS) “Scientist of the Year” Award in 2023, GMiS’s highest award. This is the first time anyone in New Mexico has won this award, unlike any Department of Energy National Laboratory.
• In 2023, he won the Division 8000 Employee Recognition Award in Technical Excellence, Sandia Labs’ highest award.
• He also earned three Outstanding Innovation Awards at Sandia Laboratories.
• Sal was inducted in 2021 to “The Sandian 300+”, a list of the top all-time Sandia Labs inventors. He was awarded the 2025 “National Award of Nuclear Science and History” for achievements in RHEAs, aerodynamics, turbulence, computational fluid dynamics, and STEM participation. The congratulatory letter notes, “This prestigious award [is] based on your work as a scientist, visionary, and exemplary role model of what it means to be a STEM professional”. Previous awardees include Glen Seaborg, Murray Gell-Mann, Senator Pete Domenici, Admiral Kirkland H. Donald, Ambassador Paul Robinson, etc. The entire list is at https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/support/einstein-gala/national-award-of-nuclear-science-history.
• Sal received the Distinguished Alumni Award for Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico in 2024, the highest honor given by the School of Engineering.

Publications:

• Sal has written over 260 national laboratory reports, white papers, presentations, conference papers, and journal papers.
• His proudest authorship is his book, “Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics and Turbulence Modeling,” which is highly praised by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has over 25,000 downloads in 80 countries and 190 universities, and a 4.8 out of 5-star rating.

Patents, cool ideas:

• Sal has 17 Technical Advances, two copyrights, three patents, and six pending patents.
• His proudest copyright is the “Right-Sized Dimple Evaluator,” which helps reduce aerodynamic drag and enhance heat transfer in subsonic to hypersonic systems.
• In 2023, his copyright was used to dimple a high-power competition rocket; post-flight data showed the drag coefficient had a maximum drag reduction of 39.1% vs. the undimpled rocket.
• In 2023, Sal’s dimpled aluminum plate generated up to 2.4 times more heat transfer vs. an undimpled plate.
• He is collaborating with a company specializing in dimpled pistons for improved diesel combustion. Independent tests showed the pistons generated 54% less NOx. Sal’s innovations are featured in Forbes Magazine, the front page of the Albuquerque Journal, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sandia Labs News Releases, UNM, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

• Other achievements include manufacturing the world’s largest RHEA components, inventing two dozen RHEAs, and developing the first-ever RHEA binder-jet manufacturing process.

STEM Work

Sal is the founder and lead presenter of the Sandia Science Club in Albuquerque, where he has instructed over 700 students to date. He has also served the Sandia Laboratories MANOS program for 20 years, providing STEM presentations to over 1,200 students and reaching another 1,000+ students during Career Day at several schools. In 2013, he was awarded the “President’s Volunteer Service Award” for his STEM volunteer work.