A Mora and Ledoux native was recently recognized for his decades-long engineering career and contributions to his community.

Harold Trujillo, an engineer with the state’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, was named the 2024 Engineer of the Year by the New Mexico Society of Professional Engineers.

“It’s a very special award for me, because it’s recognition from my peers,” Trujillo said.

According to a press release from EMNRD, the award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the engineering profession and community service.”

The press release goes on to state that while the award designates Trujillo as the top engineer for 2024, it also recognizes “his long and distinguished EMNRD career.”

Until recently, Trujillo served as the bureau chief for EMNRD’s Energy, Conservation and Management Division, beginning his work with the state on Nov. 1, 1979. The press release states that, as bureau chief, Trujillo managed several clean energy programs, such as the Solar Market Development and Sustainable Building Tax Credit programs.

“Mr. Harold Trujillo has and continues to serve New Mexico with distinction,” said Rebecca Puck Stair, director of the New Mexico State Energy Office, via the EMNRD press release. “His extraordinary institutional knowledge of New Mexico clean energy and energy efficiency programs, and his consistent high-caliber work advance our state’s energy conservation goals every day.”

Trujillo said that in the late 1970s there was an increasing focus on energy conservation programs. He noted the energy crisis that was happening at the time, which involved high energy prices and fuel shortages.

“We were concentrating on providing public information for people to conserve energy in their homes,” Trujillo said. Over the years the state went on to focus on bigger projects, such as wind farms and large solar fields, he said. 

“I feel that I have contributed to the progress New Mexico has made in the development of renewable energy sources,” Trujillo said in a written statement to The Optic. “We now have large wind and solar farms and geothermal facilities producing a substantial amount of electricity to our state’s electrical grid. And the work continues to be challenging with larger facilities being constructed.”

Trujillo said he and his team with the Energy Technology Engineering group have worked to implement tax credit legislation on wind and solar projects “that resulted in over 1 gigawatt of energy production capacity being installed and activated.” 

“We also implemented over $300 million of energy improvements in public owned facilities in the last 10 years that included state agencies, higher education facilities, cities and counties,” Trujillo said in his written statement. 

He has also worked to help New Mexico residents make use of state and federal tax credit programs to help pay for the installation of solar and green building projects in their homes and businesses.

Trujillo said in his statement that he and his team are also helping to develop and implement the Inflation Reduction Act rebate program to help low-income New Mexicans “take advantage of federal rebate programs to buy efficient appliances, heat pumps and insulation for their homes.” He noted that New Mexico was one of the first states to get approval from the Department of Energy to implement the program.  

Although he has recently retired from the position as bureau chief, Trujillo said in the written statement that he continues to support these clean energy efforts as a mentor in the Energy Conservation and Management Division.

Trujillo said his parents’ encouragement as well as the country’s focus on the space program during his formative years played a part in his desire to become an engineer.

“I liked the sciences,” Trujillo recalled. He also mentioned John F. Kennedy becoming president and the race to the Moon as events that led him to his vocation.

“I think the space program was probably one instrumental thing that got me interested in engineering,” Trujillo said. He also got encouragement from his parents. Trujillo said his father, Joe Trujillo, who was a farmer and a schoolteacher, had a friend who was an engineer.

“I think that’s why he encouraged me to be an engineer,” Trujillo said. His mother, Lourdes Trujillo, was also a schoolteacher in the Ledoux and Mora area.

Trujillo graduated from Mora High School in 1967 and went on to earn a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering at New Mexico State University. He was then drafted into the Army and spent two years at Fort Huachuca in Arizona as part of their engineering group.

After his tour of duty, Trujillo attended New Mexico Highlands University and concentrated on computer science courses. He intended to complete a master’s degree; however, he was recruited by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. During his time at LLNL, Trujillo said, he helped design laboratory and office buildings to be energy efficient. 

Trujillo said that, after a few years, he began to search for opportunities that would allow him to return to New Mexico. After four years at LLNL, he began his tenure with EMNRD, where he has served for 40 years. 

He recently semi-retired, he said, and has gone from being a bureau chief to now serving as a bureau engineer for the Energy Technology Engineering group, which is under the Energy Conservation and Management Division of the EMNRD.

Trujillo is also a farmer in Ledoux, and serves as president of the New Mexico Acequia Association.

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