Sandia petroleum engineer featured on DOE Women in STEM

The DOE is highlighting Sandia petroleum engineer Tonya Ross as an inspiring female engineer through its DOE Women @ Energy: STEM Rising website, which honors women in STEM fields throughout the DOE complex.

Tonya started as a contractor at Sandia in 2017 in environmental planning. She accepted a position as a systems engineer in June 2018 and immediately contributed to mission success through a comprehensive hazard analysis/risk assessment of the Radioactive Mixed Waste Management Facility. Tonya led the effort to develop and implement a sitewide hazard analysis and qualitative risk assessment process that supports all aspects of work at the Labs.

Tonya also does geomechanical modeling, and in February 2021 she moved into the geotechnology organization, where she creates and reviews two-dimensional finite element meshes to support the underground oil storage caverns in salt domes for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Read the complete Q&A and view more inspiring stories by women working in #STEM at Sandia National Laboratories and throughout the Department of Energy on the STEM Rising website.