Nina Poppelsdorf, a senior manager and two-decade employee of Sandia National Laboratories, died over the holiday weekend after a rogue wave capsized a diving vessel in Florida.
On Thursday, she and 22 others were thrown from the 45-foot catamaran returning from a diving trip, according to the Sun Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Witnesses said the wave flipped the craft near Pompano Beach. Three others onboard were taken to the hospital with injuries and released.
Poppelsdorf's colleagues told AP she was senior manager of Sandia's radiation protection, industrial hygiene and safety center. She also helped lead the team from Sandia that responded to the Fukushima Daiichi crisis in Japan.
According to an obituary in the Charleston, W.V., Gazette, Poppelsdorf was a graduate of West Virginia University and held a master's in public health from the University of Michigan.