Staff Reports
Andrei Santos, a former Gallup resident and University of New Mexico-Gallup alumnus, has received a NASA undergraduate research award after conducting research at Harvard University and several national laboratories across the country.
Santos, who grew up in Gallup, graduated from UNM-Gallup in 2022 with an associate degree in General Studies before continuing his education at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. A first-generation college student, he has spent much of his undergraduate career working on research projects involving chemistry, engineering, and materials science.
During the summer of 2026, Santos participated in a National Science Foundation-funded research program at Harvard University’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Working in Professor Jarad Mason’s laboratory, he investigated gas transport and bubble formation in silicalite-1, a material containing microscopic pores.
Before Harvard, Santos conducted research at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, where he studied polymers, mechanical properties, and the effects of X-ray exposure on materials. He also completed research at the National Laboratories of the Rockies in Golden, Colo., studying material degradation in components used for solar energy systems.
His earlier experience includes working at TriCore Reference Laboratories and serving as a general chemistry laboratory teaching assistant at UNM.
In addition to receiving a NASA research award, Santos was awarded the Fred and Dorothy Armijo Scholarship through UNM’s School of Engineering.
Although his academic and research experiences have taken him to institutions outside New Mexico, Santos hopes to continue his education and eventually establish his research career in the state.
Growing up in Gallup, Santos became aware of the challenges surrounding clean water access in rural communities. He remembers once overhearing a child ask his mother about visiting a carnival, only to be told they could go the next time the family returned to get water.
The conversation stayed with him. He questioned why traveling long distances for clean water had become a normal part of life for some families. Santos refused to accept the idea that something as basic as water should be difficult to obtain simply because of where someone lives.
That experience remains an important reason behind his plans to pursue graduate research in water treatment.
Santos wants to study how silica-based materials can be used to improve the treatment of brackish and reclaimed water. One of his main interests is understanding how minerals accumulate in water treatment systems and whether modifying the surfaces of these materials could help control that buildup.
He hopes to investigate treatment materials that can be cleaned, regenerated, and reused, potentially reducing the cost and maintenance required to operate water treatment systems.
His proposed research could also have applications in industrial water reuse, including cooling systems that use large amounts of water. For a landlocked state such as New Mexico, Santos believes finding more ways to treat and reuse existing water resources deserves greater attention.
His long-term goal is to help develop water treatment methods that are practical for rural communities, particularly those in western New Mexico and across the Navajo Nation, where access to reliable water infrastructure continues to be a concern.
Santos plans to pursue graduate studies and hopes to eventually become a professor and researcher at the University of New Mexico.
While his education has taken him from Gallup to Harvard and national laboratories, he intends to continue working on problems that affect the communities where he grew up.
For Santos, the next step is to turn his experience in materials science into research that addresses one of New Mexico’s most persistent challenges: making clean more accessible to the people who need it.
