During the week of May 7, 2007, and thereafter, Mariana Varotto of the Controls Group in the APS Engineering and Support Division at Argonne will be officially recognized as a role model for technology professionals. Varotto has been so designated on the Web site of HENAAC, an organization established in 1989 as a means of identifying, honoring, and documenting the contributions of outstanding Hispanic American science, engineering, technology, and math professionals.

According to the Web site, “The HENAAC Role Model of the Week is a weekly feature on www.henaac.org that highlights world-class Hispanic engineers, scientists, and technology professionals from across the employment spectrum. Role Models are selected from the hundreds of nominees submitted for the annual HENAAC awards.”

Varotto was nominated by Ned Arnold, Controls Group leader.  “The APS control systems for which our group are responsible are diverse and numerous,” said Arnold. “The system includes over 260 distributed computers around the facility that provide real-time control and monitoring functions for the technical systems.  Each is a unique combination of hardware and software which provides the specified control needs for a particular system.  Mariana is responsible for dozens of applications and is frequently sought out for her expeditious and accurate response to customer requests.

“The attribute which most compelled me to nominate Mariana for this award was her ability to learn about a new technology or system independently and quickly.  Due to staff changes and a heavy work load, Mariana is often asked to support projects with which she is not familiar.  She ambitiously learns about the new system or technology and very quickly becomes productive.  In a very short time she has made significant contributions to our system software, our relational database applications, and numerous on-line systems that are operational 24/7.

“In addition to her technical capabilities, Mariana has demonstrated a keen interest in promoting engineering and science careers to young women through her involvement in laboratory outreach programs.”

Varotto has been at Argonne for six years, all of them with the Advanced Photon Source. She is married and has a 9-month-old son, Lucas.

Argonne is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC