NASA has awarded graduate fellowships to five University of Colorado at Boulder students for earth system science studies in 2005, the most awarded to any university in the nation.
A total of 65 Earth System Science Graduate Student Fellowships awarded to 41 universities by NASA for 2005-2006 are now pending acceptance by applicants at their respective institutions. Each graduate fellowship carries a one-year, $24,000 award that is renewable annually for up to three years based on academic progress and performance.
The University of California-Irvine was awarded four NASA graduate fellowships for earth system sciences in 2005-2006, ranking second in the nation. Colorado State University was awarded two.
As the top public university in the nation in NASA funding in recent years, CU-Boulder garners significant support from the agency for a variety of space-related studies, said aerospace engineering Professor Kristine Larson, one of the faculty mentors for the NASA fellowship program.
"These fellowships highlight the strong earth-science research programs on the Boulder campus," she said. "They are one indicator of CU's contribution to global climate research related to the oceans and atmospheres, as well as research related to mitigating natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and landslides."
The five CU-Boulder winners include Charles Bardeen of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, who will use satellite data to study polar stratospheric clouds. Melinda Beaver of the chemistry and biochemistry department will study the impacts of organic chemicals on cirrus clouds, including ice nucleation from sulfuric acid particles.
In addition, Kyuhong Choi of aerospace engineering will study GPS satellite applications for earthquake faults and volcanoes and Thomas Jakub of aerospace engineering will reconstruct global sea-level variations over the past century using satellite altimeter and tide gauge data. The fifth winner, Ingrid Ulbrich of chemistry and biochemistry, will study the particle composition of atmospheric aerosols.