Dow announced three leaders have been recognized by the Hispanic Engineers National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC) with awards in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) excellence.
Juan F. Callejas was awarded Most Promising Scientist – Ph.D. – Industry. In his current role, Callejas is responsible for applications research and development and technical service and development teams, which share the main goal of delivering key innovation programs with strategic accounts. He has authored and contributed to five filed patent applications and 14 peer-reviewed papers with over 2,800 citations.
Callejas is passionate about diversity and inclusion as shown by his involvement in different organizations that advance representation in the industry. He led Dow’s 2020 Building Engineering & Science Talent Symposium, is involved in the Collegeville Hispanic and Latin Network employee resource group chapter and previously led the STEM Ambassadors organization.
Nestor de Mattos, corporate vice president and chief supply chain officer, integrated supply chain; and Varinia Bernales, associate research scientist, were honored as Great Minds in STEM (GMiS) Luminaries.
Luminary honorees represent professionals in STEM who initiate, collaborate and lead key programs and research within their companies. These individuals have made significant contributions to the Hispanic technical community as leaders and role models.
In his current role, de Mattos oversees the global end-to-end supply chain and co-chairs, with Dow’s CIO/CDO, an executive leader team responsible for setting the strategic direction and implementing the company's digital and end-to-end transformation.
Passionate about building an inclusive work culture and always striving to learn more about racial and cultural biases, de Mattos created and hosts Attuned In, a video series on LinkedIn where he focuses on exploring different perspectives surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion.
Bernales supports the Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure segment and plays a role in discovering new catalyst families through a synergy of computational and experimental methodologies. She has authored nine filed patent applications and 32 peer-reviewed papers. She currently serves on the scientific advisory board of the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center and actively reviews manuscripts for several scientific journals.
The awards are distributed by GMiS, an organization that seeks to highlight and honor the achievements of the nation’s best and brightest Hispanic engineers, scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists and technology experts. Learn more about GMiS and the HENAAC Awards.
