Quetzal Computational Associates, Inc. recently moved from Albuquerque to Durango. This state-of-the-art computing company was established in January of 1992. In that brief period, the company--through its founders and owners, husband-and-wife John Prentice and Mary Fuka-built expertise in military, agricultural and bio-medical computer-based research focused on creating computational software programs.
Gross revenues have increased between 350 and 400 percent, per year, since 1992. On the basis of the present revenue picture, this will be another good year. As the company opens up new areas of research, including agricultural and bio-medical, while maintaining high-profile military research activity, continued strong growth is expected.
Interest in Mexico and the pre-Columbian myths led to the choice of Quetzal as the company's name. The quetzal is a strikingly beautiful bird found in Central and South America. It has golden-green and scarlet plumage. The quetzal was the symbol for the Aztec and Toltec feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl. The unusual name attracts questioning attention which makes it a bonus.
Both John and Mary have deep ties to the Four Corners area. John's father and grandfather lived south of Cortez. After schooling at CU-Boulder and a stint with Boeing in the Seattle area, John's father spent the remainder of his career at Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, where John grew up. Mary's parents were both engineers at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico. John and Mary received their post-high school degrees at UNM in Albuquerque. Both hold Ph.D.s in physics with heavy mathematics and computing emphases.
The other members of the team are Dan Fuka, Mary's brother, who has a master's degree in biological systems engineering and who does research associated with the company's interests in crop oil content and nutrition content evaluation, and Karen Janusch, who is the office manager. Karen handles the accounting, some of the bookkeeping and the other typical office manager duties. There is also one part-time-temporary person working for the company. Since the company has grown each year and since prospects look good, additional hiring is anticipated.
What is the Quetzal company's mission? The answers to that question are complex. The answers reside in the broad interests and expertise of the company's principles. Previous and on-going contracts have included creating programs to do analyses of the characteristics and behaviors of armor piercing projectiles as they strike and penetrate various classes of materials. (Steel, aluminum, reinforced concrete and sand are examples.)
Such research has led to the development of more effective armor piercing weapons and to a better understanding of the materials that resist being pierced. Some of the research in this area grew out of the military's Gulf War experiences.
One of the company's present projects is to develop application programs for a supercomputer at Sandia Laboratories. When completely assembled and activated, the Sandia computer will be the world's fastest and will have the largest storage capacity of any other computer in the world. They also are involved in developing programs for the Air Force's Cray T3D computer.
One use of these computer programs is to permit scientists at national laboratories to simulate the operation of nuclear weapon components on a computer. Now that the United States has ceased underground testing, being able to simulate how different weapon components function increases the confidence the United States has in its ability to maintain a reduced nuclear arsenal without underground testing.
Present and prospective projects include programs designed to determine the oil content and nutritional content of soybean crops. Crop evaluation is of use to growers, shippers and processors. Quality characteristics such as oil, starch and protein contents in major grain crops can vary greatly depending on a host of environmental factors. The amounts of moisture and of sunlight that the crop received across the growing season are but two examples.
Recent increases in the availability of high powered work stations and mass data storage devices mean that appropriate programs are needed to gather, analyze and interpret data about the key environmental influences. Remote sensing of many of the key factors is now possible; thus, the necessary data can be collected for analysis and interpretation. Crop analysis helps both small farmers and large agri-businesses such as the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry program in the Four Corners.
The development of programs designed to gather data on the key crop quality factors and the development of programs which can do the complex analyses fit right into the Quetzal team's interests and expertise. For this, they are developing programs to run on supercomputers such at the IBM SP-2.
Other areas of developing interest are in the bio-physical and bio-materials fields. These include the physics involved in hip implants. The pressure on the bone abutting the implant is crucial. With too much pressure, the bone will grow away from the implanted object; with too little pressure the bone may grow "over" the implanted object.
Also crucial to a successful implant over the long-term is the texture of the implant's surface. Developing biological models and associated computer programs to determine how this texture affects the body's reaction to the implant is important in the improvement of both implant techniques and implant materials.
Additional research attention is being given to the optimal properties of bio-materials such as the wires associated with pacemakers. Pacemakers commonly are installed in people with certain kinds of heart disease. The wires are subjected to many and varied stresses. Understanding the stresses and their cumulative effects are vital to successful, long-term operation of the pacemaker.
John's interest in materials goes back at least 20 years. His interest in biomedical materials is more recent. He also has an abiding interest in how body proteins react when they contact man-made materials. An example would be the clotting of blood in implanted heart valves and in artificial arteries and veins. Clotting occurs when blood proteins stick to the surfaces of these biomedical items.
The research at Quetzal is aimed at gaining greater understanding of this body protein sticking process. Success with this research will make it possible to develop new biomedical materials that resist protein sticking and which then could be used in many areas of biomedicine.
Both John and Mary would like to have the company involved in basic research in environmental-related areas. However, cutbacks in funds in many of these areas have meant that activity associated with their interests in these area are--largely--on hold for the time being.
John and Mary are, in some sense, both pioneers and exemplars, both in their work and in their move to Durango. The move to Durango was prompted by an abiding desire on the part of John and Mary and their two principal employees to live in a small town and to be near their favorite out-door recreational pursuits (hiking, skiing, etc.). Once the company's financial situation would support such a move and once the electronic superhighway infrastructure was in place and reasonably reliable, the move was inevitable. After much investigation, Durango seemed like a logical and highly desirable choice.
The move to Durango proved easier than either John or Mary thought possible. Office space for the company was found in Warren Boyle's building at 3455 North Main Avenue. Contacts with La Plata Electric, Greeley Gas, U S West, La Plata County offices, and the city of Durango proved to be pleasant contrasts to the long lines and delayed services they experienced before. Every person in every office they contacted treated the newcomers with courteous efficiency. Although air travels in and out of Durango and Farmington have been without hassles for the Quetzal team so far, they are concerned about the problems others travelers are experiencing.
One major concern of all four people involved in the move to Durango was the cost of living and the cost of doing business in Durango. The latter has turned out to be about what it was in Albuquerque. The cost of living is higher. As the company continues to grow and the necessity for adding personnel emerges, this problem will continue to assert itself. Housing costs are high in Durango, even for someone earning what the typical highly educated, highly experienced person needed for the Quetzal projects is paid.
The handicap posed by the absence of a large, local research university is partially overcome by the networking potentials with Fort Lewis, by continued contacts at the University of New Mexico and Sandia Labs, both in Albuquerque, by contacts with other entities involved in the company's ongoing research programs and grants and by the benefits of the electronic superhighway.
Power interruptions are a great concern for a company like Quetzal. An unexpected interruption has significant adverse results, as can a power surge that exceeds the protection provided by normal surge protectors. Special equipment is being purchased to allay this problem, a problem that is also under study at La Plata Electric, the local, user-owned electric utility company.
Offsetting the negatives are the benefits. Chief among the benefits for John and Mary are such things as the Animas mountain trail which begins a few hundred yards from the office doorstep. When a hiking break is needed, they can reach the trail in a matter of minutes. Another great benefit is the proximity to the high country. If, at 4:30 some afternoon, the high country beckons, it is but a short auto ride into the mountains for the exhilaration and "therapy" of an above-timberline hike. The great views of the La Plata mountains from their in-town office is another plus for John and Mary. Finally, they like and they use the Durango trolley; they feel more people would use the trolley, if it ran more often.
Like most people who come to Durango, they are concerned about population growth and--more importantly--about how such growth will be addressed. Both John and Mary see growth as inevitable; they would like to see it handled better than it was in Albuquerque and in Santa Fe, as examples.
Most physicists work in laboratories at places like Los Alamos and Sandia, or near the East and West coasts. With the continued growth and development of the electronic superhighway more companies like Quetzal Computational Associates will be able to move to their "dream" work sites. The Quetzal company and its people represent welcome additions to the Four Corner's economy and--with their high levels of education and their varied interests--to the local ambiance.
Author note: Hal Mansfield is professor emeritus and a former chair of the psychology department at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He taught at the college from 1974 to 1993. Part of his retirement regimen includes freelance writing.