Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs.
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- Cristina Thomas, an associate professor for the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science (APS), recently joined the steering committee for NASA’s Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG). Established in 2008, SBAG is a community-based forum designed to provide input on the exploration of small bodies in the solar system like asteroids, comets, satellites and trans-Neptunian objects.
- The Rocky Mountain/Southwest chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nominated several students from the School of Communication for National Student Production Awards, which honor outstanding student achievement in media production. The NAU students and projects nominated are as follows:
- Makayla Richardson, Ava Nichols, Kayleigh Doyle, Jordan Vallender, Noah McNeil and Connor Emery were nominated in the College Newscast category for their contributions to NAZ Today’s Super Bowl coverage.
- Zach Hoerl was nominated in the College Non-Fiction—Short Form category for the project “Mikey Eggert Wildlife Photography.”
- Zachary Furman was nominated in the College Fiction—Short Form category for the project “Computer Doctor.”
- Nichols, Richardson, Emery, Ashley Hinchy and Reese Clarke were nominated in the College Sports Program category for NAZ Today’s Super Bowl coverage.
- Ariel Rieghard was nominated in the College Animation/Graphics/Special Effects category for the project “The Secret Garden Title Sequence.”
- Eli Fritch and Rahmi Soliman were nominated in the College Editor category for the projects “Part of a Balanced Breakfast” and “Reverse Therapy,” respectively.
- Parker Hall was nominated in the College Photographer category for the project “Golden Boys.”
- Devon Walkenhorst was nominated in the College Writer category for the project “Pickup Line.”
- NAU alumna Lauren Biddle was the first author of the paper “One-third of Sun-like stars are born with misaligned planet-forming disks,” published in Nature Astronomy. In the study, researchers found that a considerable number of sun-like stars have planets that may have formed with misaligned orbits, meaning they have different rotational axes than their host stars.
- APS Chair David Trilling recently joined the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee, which advises the National Science Foundation, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy on issues within the fields of astronomy and astrophysics.