Five Smead Aerospace graduate students are receiving special recognition for their contributions to research and teaching.
The 2019 John A. Vise award is presented annually to two Aerospace PhD students for demonstrated excellence in academics, research, and community service. The 2019 honorees are Mike Lotto and Kirsten Strandjord.
In addition, three students are also being recognized for their contributions to Research (Benjamin Bercovici) Service (Jordan Maxwell), and Teaching (Karl Sanchez). Find out more about all five honorees below.
John A. Vise Award #1
Mike Lotto
Advisor: David Klaus
Mike Lotto achieved an impressive 3.986 undergrad GPA, maintained a solid 4.0 in his MS coursework, and has already co-authored 3 journal publications and 4 conference papers. He augmented his engineering studies with planetary geology and is on track to complete his PhD in 2020, along with a second MS in Geological Sciences and a Graduate Certificate in Astrobiology. He worked as a NASA co-op, a Research Assistant with BioServe supporting payloads on the ISS, and conducted a heat transfer experiment onboard NASA’s Zero-G parabolic aircraft. He is now a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow performing research at the interface between space systems engineering and Mars geology, with the goal advancing in situ resource utilization with a technology based on a novel analytical chemistry process using copper electrodes with room temperature ionic liquids to simultaneously convert CO2 and water into oxygen and methane for crew consumables and propellant.
John A. Vise Award #2
Kirsten Strandjord
Advisor: Penina Axelrad
In recognition of academic excellence, significant research contributions in GNSS modeling, monitoring, and utilization for positioning in challenging environments, and outstanding service to the community through her work to support graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 student development as lead TA, the AEROBUDS program, and other outreach efforts on behalf of the Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department.
Outstanding Graduate Student for Research
Benjamin Bercovici
Advisor: Jay McMahon
Dr Ben Bercovici recently defended his dissertation "Mapping and Navigation of Small Bodies in the Presence of Uncertainty" in which he demonstrated nearly autonomous production of an asteroid shape model with uncertainty and subsequent navigation around the asteroid using a spacecraft based LIDAR instrument. He will soon be joining Astroscale in Japan, where he will work on spacecraft for active removal of orbital debris.
Outstanding Graduate Student for Service
Jordan Maxwell
Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub
Jordan Maxwell has performed great services to the University of Colorado student population while engaged and leading challenging experimental doctoral research. He lead the development of a novel charged astrodynamics testbed using a vacuum chamber equipped with electron and ion emission. He is the facilities and recruitment officer of the CU Engineering Excellence Fund where he was in charge of reviewing over 75-100 proposals a year. Further, he is the founding member of the “People Against Taxing Education” organization. This group is rallying support from student leaders regarding the proposed tax changes that will have a very strong impact on graduate students with assistantships programs. As part of this group he organized an informational panel consisting of college leadership and representative of Colorado’s congressmen and tax experts.
Outstanding Graduate Student for Teaching
Joseph Karl Sanchez
Advisor: Natasha Bosanac
Here is Karl’s statement upon being receiving this recognition: I am continually humbled by the brilliance and the passion of my peers. From my experience, every person here magically balances extreme technical prowess with sterling humanity. These people challenge me to be the best version of myself while giving me hope for the future of our industry and our species. It’s been an honor being able to give back to this community from which I’ve learned so much. It’s said a rising tide raises all ships. At CU Aerospace, we are all lifted toward the stars.