Graduate Student Awards

John A. Vise Memorial Scholarship

The John A. Vise Graduate Student Excellence Award was established in the fall of 1999 by Mrs. Mildred Vise. It honors the memory of her son, John A. Vise, a graduate of the University of Colorado. The award, which consists of a certificate and a $3,000 fellowship, is presented annually to two Ph.D. students who have demonstrated excellence in academics and research, and who have contributed community service. Nominations from the faculty are reviewed by the Graduate Committee of the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and awarded each spring.

John A. Vise was born January 11, 1961 in Denver, Colorado. He was part of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program on the Boulder campus and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado in 1983. He joined the Air Force in 1984, and earned an M.S. in Astronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1990. From 1990-1994 John Vise was a Resident Engineer at Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida. In 1994 he became Chief of the Facilities and Support Division, Rome Laboratory, Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts. At the time of his untimely death in 1997, John Vise was attending classes at the University of Massachusetts and active in their ROTC program where he assisted younger students to fulfill their dreams.

John Vise's military decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, and the National Defense Service Medal.

2008 Recipients: Jonathan Fentzke and Bryant Loomis
2007 Recipients: Kathryn E. Hamera and Jan-Peter Weiss

2006 Recipients: Keric Hill and Nicholas Bernstein

2005 Recipients: Jeffrey S. Parker and Michael R. Ross

2004 Recipients: Rodney Anderson and Michael Benoit

2003 Recipients: Dallas Masters and Eric Mehiel

2002 Recipients: Jeanette Domber and Eric Rhoden

2001 Recipients: Ulrich Hetmaniuk and Sandra Castro

2000 Recipients: Monica Angelats i Coll and David Goldstein

National and International Awards and Fellowships

2008:
Amal Ramachandran Nair, aerospace PhD student, has received the American Geophysical Union's outstanding student paper award for his paper titled, " Inter-hemispheric comparison of gravity waves observed in PMC's from the CIPS experiment on board the AIM spacecraft."

Kennda Lynch, MS aerospace 2008, received NASA 's Harriet Jenkins Predoctoral Fellowship.

Jonathan Metts, aerospace PhD student, received 4th place recognition in a student poster competition held at the 38th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES) in San Francisco in July for his poster titled Application of Electrochromic Materials for Active Space Suit Thermal Control.

Nicholas Pedatella, aerospace PhD student, won the first place award in the student poster competition for his work "Longitude structure of the low-latitude F-region ionosphere" at the annual CEDAR (Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions) Workshop
sponsored by NSF, which was held this year in Midway, Utah, 15-21 June, 2008.

Steven Mitchell, aerospace PhD student, was awarded a NASA Earth and Space Sciences fellowship. His research topic is "Monitoring Outlet Glacier Mass-Balance and Dynamics with Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Systems."

Jason Roadman, aerospace PhD student, is this year’s recipient of the AIAA Foundation John Leland Atwood Graduate Award.

Laurren Kanner, aerospace MS student, was selected as recipient  of this year's Abe M. Zarem Award for Distinguished Achievement in Astronautics

Brandon Jones, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) Fellowship from Johnson Space Center.

Jonathan Metts, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant.

Laurren Kanner, aerospace MS student, was awarded second place in the graduate division at the AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference in April 2008. Her paper is titled, "Characterization of Volatile Movement on Titan through High-Precision Gravitation.”

Jason Roadman , aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship award.

Stephanie Golmon, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship award.

Matthew Edwards, aerospace BS/MS student, was selected as Outstanding Graduate for Service by the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The award is given in recognition of Matt's achievements in service as a concurrent undergraduate and graduate student in the College and on the CU Boulder campus.

Kathryn Hamera, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the Amelia Earhart fellowship by Zonta International. Her research in the use of dynamical systems theory for optimal station keeping strategies and transfer of periodic orbits in the vicinity of the Earth-Moon system has the potential to become operational in NASA's quest to return to the Moon.

Jonathan Fentzke, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the National Astronomy and Ionospheric Center (NAIC) Arecibo Observatory pre-doctoral fellowship as a graduate student in residence. He is conducting his  dissertation work on site in Puerto Rico.

Laurren Kanner, aerospace MS student, won first place in the graduate division of the AIAA International Student Paper Competition, held in conjunction with the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit in Reno, Nevada, on January 11th, 2008. Her paper is titled "Impact of Solar Beta-Angle Seasonal Variations on the Mission Planning of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) All-Sky Survey."

2007:
Jason Jonkman, aerospace Ph.D. graduate, was awarded the European Academy of Wind Energy’s (EWEA’s) Excellent Young Wind Doctor Award 2008 for his “PhD dissertation ‘Dynamics Modeling and Loads Analysis of an Offshore Floating Wind Turbine’ University of Colorado, November 2007.”

David Wiese, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a Student Travel Grant to attend the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) Conference in Perugia, Italy, in July 2007.

Andrea Hanson, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant.

Ryan Kobrick, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) Fellowship from the Glenn Research Center. His research topic is "Lunar Dust Characterization and Mitigation Technologies for Surface Exploration Missions."

Andria Bilich. recent Ph.D. graduate, has been awarded the 2007 Bradford Parkinson Award by the Institute of Navigation.  This award is given annually to honor an outstanding graduate student in the field of Global Navigation Satellite Systems.

Xiaofan Li, aerospace Ph.D. student, was a member of a team of 6 students who won a GNSS technology business competition held at the GNSS Summer School in Berchtesgaden, Germany, Sept 2-8, 2007.

Kathryn Hamera, aerospace Ph.D. student was awarded a National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship award.

Jason Jonkman, aerospace Ph.D. student and Senior Engineer at NREL, won the outstanding paper award at the 26th ASME Wind Energy Symposium, which was part of the 45th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. His paper titled, "Development and Verification of a Fully Coupled Simulator for Offshore Wind Turbines" was coauthored with Marshall Buhl, who is also a Senior Engineer at NREL.

David Wiese, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

Jill Tombasco, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

Jonathan Metts, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) Fellowship from Johnson Space Center, with supplemental funding from Wyoming Space Grant. His research topic is "Application of Electrochromic Materials for Active Space Suit Thermal Control."

Bruce Davis, Laurren Kanner and Jonathan Metts, were selected as finalists in the first PISCES student design competition. The group design was titled, "Translating Life Support System Functions into Hardware Requirements and Operational Considerations for a Lunar Outpost Analogue." Jonathan and Bruce presented the results at a conference in Hilo, HI, in November 2007.

Laurren Kanner, aerospace masters student, placed 1st in the Master's Division, AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference. "Impact of Solar Beta-Angle Seasonal Variations on the Mission Planning of the. Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer."

Laurren Kanner, Danielle Massey, Ryan Kobrick and Lisa Geschwill received 3rd Place in the Team Division, AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference. "Educational Opportunities Supporting the Development of a Full-Scale Mock-Up of the New Lunar Lander at the University Level: A Case Study."

Laurren Kanner, Brent Lewis, Rich Rieber, Hwapyong Ko, and David Owen, received the award for Best Student Paper, 54th Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force (JANNAF) Propulsion Meeting. "MaCH-SR1: Development and Characterization of Hybrid Rocket Technologies through Undergraduate R&D."

Laurren Kanner, aerospace masters student, was the CU Gold "Rising Star" Leadership Award Nominee for Aerospace Engineering Dept.

Evan Thomas, aerospace Ph.D. candidate, received a NASA-JSC Engineering Achievement Medal for his work with the Engineers Without Borders-JSC Chapter.

Evan Thomas, aerospace Ph.D. candidate, received 3rd Place recognition at the International Energy Globe Awards, Water Category, which he accepted at the European Union Parliament in Brussels as the Project Manager for work conducted in Rwanda with the Engineers Without Borders-USA Chapter.

Jason Reimuller, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a NASA Earth and Space Sciences fellowship. His research topic is: “Time Evolution Imaging of Polar Mesospheric Clouds Using Airborne and Spaceborne Platforms.”

2006:

Kathryn Hamera, aerospace Ph.D. student was awarded a National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship award.

David Wiese, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

Laurren Kanner, aerospace masters student, was the Runner-Up for the UGGS Teaching Effectiveness Award.

Georg Pingen, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a travel award from the ICMMES organizing committee to attend the ICMMES conference in Munich.

Eric L Pollard, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship.

Kevin Sylves, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a Sandia CU Excellence in Engineering Fellowship.

Bryant Loomis, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Research Program fellowship. His work was titled: “Development of a Follow-On Gravity Mission to GRACE.”

Keric Hill, aerospace Ph.D. student was awarded a National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship award.

Brian Poller, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant.

Brian Poller, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a Sigma Xi Grant-In-Aid of Research.

Kennda Lynch, aerospace Ph.D. student, received an NSF Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) Fellowship Award for 2006/07.

Ryan Kobrick, aerospace Ph.D. student, was named an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholar for 2006/07.

Ryan Kobrick, aerospace Ph.D. student, received the AIAA Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award to support his research involving spacesuit design for lunar and Mars exploration.

Kevin Higdon, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a Fellowship from the NASA Graduate Student Research Program (GSRP) to conduct computational modeling of low-gravity biophysical transport processes.

Ian Crocker, a graduate student in aerospace engineering sciences, won a student paper award at the AGU/ASLO Ocean Sciences meeting in Honolulu in February. 

Jan Weiss, aerospace Ph.D. student, was accepted to the National Science Foundation East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute for U.S. Graduate Students.  He spent the summer conducting research on GPS multipath at the University of New South Wales.

Jack Elston, aerospace Ph.D. student, received an Institute of Navigation, Rocky Mountain Section Scholarship Award for his work on navigation and control of unmanned air vehicles.

Jeffrey Parker, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the American Astronautical Society's John V. Breakwell Travel Award to present his paper, “Families of Low Energy Lunar Halo Transfer Orbits” at the 2006 Space Flight Mechanics Winter Meeting in January in Tampa.  The award was conferred in recognition of excellence in academic achievement and research.

2005:

Kathryn Hamera, aerospace Ph.D. student was awarded a National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship award.

David Wiese, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

Jack Elston, aerospace Ph.D. student, received the Institute of Navigation Scholarship Award.

Vanessa Aponte, aerospace Ph.D. student, was the recipient of the HENAAC Student Leadership Graduate Award selected on the basis of leadership and campus/community service.

Kyuhong Choi received a NASA fellowship for his research on High-Rate GPS Applications for Earth System Science: from 0.05 Seconds to Days.

Thomas Jakub received a NASA fellowship for his research on Reconstruction of Global Sea Level Variations over the Last Century Using Satellite Altimeter and Tide Gauge Data.

Jeffrey Parker, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant Award.

Jeffrey Parker, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Research Program fellowship. His work was titled: “Free Transfers in the Sun-Earth-Moon Systems.”

Kathryn Hamera, aerospace MS student, was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship award.

David Wiese, aerospace MS student, was awarded a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

James Russell, aerospace Ph.D. student, received the AIAA John Leland Atwood Graduate Student Award. Jim's doctoral research is aimed at establishing metrics for the selection of advanced spacecraft life support technologies.

Steve Chappell, aerospace Ph.D. student, received an AIAA Foundation Graduate Award in the open topic category to support his doctoral studies involving planetary spacesuit design and operations.

Christopher Lane, aerospace Ph.D. student, received the AIAA Foundation Open Topic Graduate Student Award. Chris's doctoral research is on navigation algorithms for satellite formation flying in high earth orbits.

Vanessa Aponte, aerospace Ph.D. student, was selected as the Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year by the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and GEM.

Jan Weiss, aerospace Ph.D. student, won the best presentation award in his session at the Institute of Navigation GNSS 2005 conference, for his paper titled, "Aircraft Carrier Multipath Modeling for Sea-Based JPALS."

Jaclyn Poon, aerospace M.S. student, was awarded one of four Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Future Woman Pilots Awards for 2005 by Ninety-Nines, Inc., a non-profit, international organization of licensed women pilots. The organization came into being in 1931 when Amelia Earhart was elected as first president, and the group was named for the 99 women pilot charter members.

2004:

Vanessa Aponte, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a NASA Graduate Student Research Program (GSRP) Fellowship for her thesis research titled Development of a Novel BioMEMS Sensor for Minimally Invasive Astronaut Immune System Monitoring.

Jeffrey Parker, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the "Best Paper" award at the AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Providence, RI, for a paper titled "Unstable Resonant Orbits near Earth and Their Applications in Planetary Missions."

Jeffrey Parker, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) fellowship. His work was titled: “Improvements in the Estimation of the Earth’s Gravity Field Using Grace Mission Data.”

Jackson Lee, aerospace MS student, was awarded an NSF EAPSI fellowship to Japan this summer. He will be working at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan, on research related to his MS thesis entailing various aspects of microbial recycling bioprocesses for a Lunar or Mars base.

Maria Belmonte Rivas, a first year grad student in CCAR, has been selected to receive a Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship for the 2004-2005 academic year. Maria's research area is remote sensing using GPS bistatic radar.

Eric Sutton, whose renewal proposal, Thermospheric Density Response Characteristics as Derived from CHAMP/SETA Satellite Experiments, has been selected for funding by NASA under the Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP).

Niranjan Sharma, has received a continuation of his fellowship through NASA's GSRP program as well, which will fund his proposal, Atmospheric Dynamics of Earth and Mars: A Comparative Modeling Study.

Heather Howard, a first year aerospace MS student, received a NASA Graduate Student Research Program (GSRP) Fellowship from the Johnson Space Center for her research proposal titled Systematic Characterization of Antibiotic Effectiveness under Altered Gravitational Environments.

Keric Hill, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

2003:

Juniper Jairala, aerospace Ph.D. student, received a Graduate Assistantship in Biosciences from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Initiative for Minority Student Development.

Mike Benoit, aerospace Ph.D. student, received an Honorable Mention Award in the student competition for his poster titled Computational Modeling of Extracellular Mass Transport presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology (ASGSB) held in November in Huntsville, AL. He was also elected President of the ASGSB Student Chapter for the coming year.

Patrick Shriver, aerospace Ph.D. student, received 3rd place with a $5000 award in the 11th annual Frank J. Redd student scholarship competition at the 17th annual AIAA Conference on Small Satellites. His paper was titled Opening the Door to Smart Power Management in Small Satellites.

Mike Benoit, aerospace PhD student and BioServe RA, was awarded the AIAA Foundation Graduate Award for Studies in Cellular Dynamics and Growth in Space. The award provides $5000 for research support and a travel stipend to attend the 42nd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in Reno NV, January 2004.

Tom Hatfield, aerospace Ph.D. candidate, was awarded the AIAA Foundation Graduate Award for Studies in Ultrasonic Physiological Measurement and Technology. The award provides $5000 for research support and a travel stipend to attend the 42nd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in Reno NV, January 2004.

Jim Russell, aerospace Ph.D. student and BioServe RA, received a 'Grant-in-Aid of Research' award from the Scientific Research Society, Sigma Xi to help support his work involving development of a non-invasive biosensor for use in space and ground-based cell culture research. This is a highly competitive process with only approximately 20% of applicants receiving funding.

Jan Weiss, aerospace Ph.D. student, awarded third place in the graduate division of the AIAA Midwestern Regional Student Conference for presentation of his paper, Space Weather Effects on GPS Positioning Accuracy.

Rodney Anderson, aerospace Ph.D. student, awarded the John V. Breakwell student travel award in recognition of his excellent academic achievement and his research.

Juniper Jairala, aerospace MS student and BioServe RA, was awarded a fellowship from the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (GEM). This award will provide her with full tuition/fees and a minimum $10,000 stipend over 3 semesters, along with summer internships by the employer sponsor, in this case, NASA Dryden.

2002:

Andria Lynn Bilich, aerospace Ph.D. student, awarded a three-year graduate student fellowship from the National Science Foundation to study multipath effects on GPS data and assisting in developing algorithms to correct for systematic error, thus improving accuracy of GPS crustal deformation studies.

Anne Hickey, aerospace Ph.D. student, awarded a NASA Earth System Science Fellowship through the Goddard Space Flight Center. Her thesis involves a multi-sensor approach for assessment of cumulative impacts and environmental change on the Alaskan North Slope.

Jeffrey Parker, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

Melissa Sampson, aerospace Ph.D. student and BioServe RA, was selected as an Amelia Earhart Fellow by Zonta International for the second year in a row. The awards, established in 1938, are granted annually to women pursuing graduate degrees related to aerospace sciences or engineering and provide $6,000 to be used for tuition, books and fees, or living expenses. Melissa's research focuses on biochemical responses of plants to space flight, including applications involving engineering payload design.

Tom Hatfield, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) fellowship from the Johnson Space Center. His thesis involves using quantitative ultrasound technology to study the effects of space flight on bone and muscle physiology.

Jim Russell, aerospace Ph.D. student, was awarded the AIAA Foundation Graduate Award for his research involving biomass monitoring under the simulated microgravity conditions achieved in a Rotating Wall Vessel (RWV) Bioreactor. The award provides $5000 for research support and a travel stipend to attend the 41st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in Reno NV, January 2003.

Travis Liggett, who is working on a research project under the McNair Scholars Program, was awarded a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant. The Beverly Sears Grant provides a stipend of $995 to be used towards expenses incurred in his research involving vibramyography techniques for mitigating bone loss in astronauts.

Mike Benoit, aerospace Ph.D student, was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) Fellowship through the John H. Glenn Research Center. His thesis involves application of engineering numerical modeling techniques to problems pertaining to gravitational biology.

Ken Stroud, aerospace Ph.D student, received a NASA Graduate Student Researcher Program (GSRP) Fellowship from the Johnson Space Center. His thesis work involves studying how the neurovestibular system responds to space flight and developing countermeasures to help minimize the consequential detrimental impact to crew health and performance.

Ken Stroud, aerospace Ph.D student, was selected as this year's recipient of the AIAA Willy Z. Sadeh Award in Space Sciences and Space Engineering. The Sadeh Award provides a $5,000 grant for graduate research, plus a travel stipend to attend the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in Reno, Nevada in January 2003, and the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Congress in October 2003 to be held in Bremen, Germany.

Johanne Heald was awarded an AIAA Foundation Graduate Award for 2002. She submitted her work under the "Open Topic" category, and her award is for studies in deployable space structures. This is a great honor, since only four "Open Topic" awards are given out each year, and the award is open to any graduate student in the world working on AIAA related topics, two of which were awarded to CU students. The award includes a $5000 stipend and an invitation to present her work at the January 2003 AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in Reno.

Cory Dixon was awarded an AIAA Foundation Graduate Award. He submitted his work under the "Open Topic" category, and his award is for studies in unmanned aerial vehicles. This is a great honor, since only four "Open Topic" awards are given out each year, and the award is open to any graduate student in the world working on AIAA related topics, two of which were awarded to CU students. The award includes a $5000 stipend and an invitation to present his work at the January 2003 AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in Reno.

Ulrich Hetmaniuk won the Robert J. Melosh Medal Competition for the best Student Paper on Finite Element Analysis. Endorsed by the International Association for Computational Mechanics, this medal was awarded Ulrich on May 29, 2002 at Duke University. Finalists were from CalTech, UCLA, University of Minnesota and University of Swansea in England.

Michael R. Raulli was awarded a two-year Sandia Doctoral Fellowship, based on excellent GPA and research work in the area of MEMS. Selection process included input from the Associate Dean of Engineering for Research and Administration, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and a representative from Sandia National Laboratories.

Michael Neylon, aerospace Ph.D. student, selected to receive the Teets Family Endowed Doctoral Fellowship for two years of study in a field related to micro/nano systems in engineering or life sciences.

Blair Thompson, aerospace Ph.D. student, awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) Fellowship through the Goddard Space Flight Center. His thesis involves the analysis of temporal variations of the Earth's gravity field from CHAMP and GRACE satellite data.

Kirsten G. Carpenter, aerospace M.S. student, awarded the NASA Special Achievement Award citing "… an outstanding job supporting the Cargo Integration and Operations Branch (DO5) by demonstrating exceptional initiative and integration skills ...." Kirsten joined NASA Johnson Space Center as a permanent employee in the same branch after her graduation.

2001:

Vanessa Aponte-Irizarry was awarded a fellowship from the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (GEM) to support her doctoral studies in aerospace engineering sciences and provide her with a summer internship at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

Aimee Merkel received the Outstanding Student Paper Awards for Engineering Students. The awards were presented by the Space Physics & Aeronomy Section at the 2001 Spring Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, last June. Among the twelve outstanding students honored, Aimee presented a poster titled "Global Images of Polar Mesopheric Clouds from the SNOE Spacecraft." Aimee's research interests focus on the measurement and analysis of polar mesospheric clouds from the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) satellite with an emphasis on the influence of atmospheric dynamics on cloud formation.

Vanessa Aponte-Irizarry, an incoming graduate student, and Moriba Jah, a current graduate student, have been awarded the Chancellor's Teaching Assistant Program Fellowship. The fellowship was inaugurated this year to encourage outstanding minority graduate students in the science, math, and engineering fields to pursue and graduate with Ph.D.'s with the intention to enter the professorate. It offers awardees a $15,000 AY stipend for the first year, a $2,500 diversity fellowship for incoming eligible students, a $3,500 summer research fellowship following the first year of study, professional development activities, and finally travel funds for conference presentations.

Dallas Masters received an award for best paper in session - Masters, D., P. Axelrad, V. Zavorotny, S.J. Katzberg, and F. Lalezari, "A Passive GPS Bistatic Radar Altimeter for Aircraft Navigation," ION GPS-2001, Salt Lake City, OR, p. 2435-2445, September 2001.

Premal Madhani received an award for best paper in session - Madhani, P.H., P. Axelrad, K. Krumvieda, J. Thomas, "Mitigation of the Near-Far Problem by Successive Interference Cancellation," ION GPS-2001, Salt Lake City, UT, p. 148-154, September 2001.

Dallas Masters, aerospace Ph.D. student, awarded the Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research to support experiments in GPS-based remote sensing of soil moisture.

Dallas Masters, aerospace Ph.D. student, awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) Fellowship through the Goddard Space Flight Center. His thesis involves development of techniques for GPS bistatic radar and its application to remote sensing.

Joel Nyquist, aerospace MS student, received an Outstanding Student Paper Award by the Ocean Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union for his presentation at the 2001 Fall Meeting.