In the Spotlight: March 25-29, 2024

Kudos to these faculty, staff, students and programs 

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NAU students Trevor Johnson, Connor Mayon, Connor Swingle and Brandon Mack and faculty member Alexander Shenkin were awarded the $100,000 grand prize in the 10X Clean Cooling Student Competition to advance their SmartFan project, which aims to provide a renewable and sustainable replacement for traditional air conditioning. The team’s community partner, Habitat for Humanity, will receive an additional $50,000 to support implementation of the solution in 40 starter homes in Flagstaff.
Biological sciences student Anneliese Brown was selected for the University of Minnesota’s Undergraduate Physiology Research in Medicine and Education program, a paid summer opportunity that trains undergraduate students in biomedical laboratory research.
The College of Arts and Letters has selected three students for their McKenzie Fellowship, which provides financial support to seniors whose capstone or independent study projects address aspects of politics and citizenship. These students are:
Spanish major Adrian Barrett, whose project focuses on the legal background and history of Spanish translation services in Arizona. Barrett is working with faculty mentor Yuly Asencion Delany. ‌
Interdisciplinary humanities major Angela Brauer, whose research centers around the political leanings of surrealist artists. Brauer’s faculty mentor is Kent Linthicum.
Creative writing major Isabella Ferrero, whose work will feature a collection of poems illustrating the experiences of children from the Venezuelan Diaspora. Ferrero’s faculty mentor Candi Corral.
Nico Young and Madeline Wilson were named the first Big Sky Outdoor Track Athletes of the Week of the season following Young’s record-breaking 10,000-meter run at The TEN meet and Wilson’s 100-meter and 200-meter event wins at the Arizona Spring Break Fiesta. Young’s time of 26:57.72 made him one of five American men to break the 27-minute mark for this event.
Honors College sophomore Isabella Necoechea was selected to participate in the Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) at the University of California Los Angeles. The summer learning program provides fully funded programs at 12 institutions across the country where students can explore their interests in medicine, dentistry, nursing and other health professions.
Many members of the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference last week in March: undergraduate students Greta Freeman and Emily Clark; Ph.D. students Anna Baker, Nicole Ozdowski, Laura Lee, Natalie Jones, and Ana Morgan; and postdocs Cheng Ye and Chris Wolfe.
Associate professor Cristina Thomas co-authored an article in The Planetary Science Journal based on results from the DART mission. The NASA DART mission successfully hit the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system, shortening its orbit by about 33 minutes, slightly changing its shape and orbit, and possibly making it less circular or more chaotic after the impact, according to observations made from July 2022 to February 2023.
Professor David Trilling co-authored a paper on the New Horizons extended mission, published in March; itdiscusses efforts spanning 10 years, using ground-based and space telescopes, to discover and analyze Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs), resulting in the identification of 89 KBOs, including 11 targeted for observation by the New Horizons spacecraft and Arrokoth, the first post-Pluto fly-by destination.
BP Blakley, Will Grundy, Jennifer Hanley, Anna Engle, Steve Tegler, Gerrick Lindberg, Shae Raposa, Kendall Koga and Cece Thieberger are co-authors on “The Equilibrium Vapor Pressures of Ammonia and Oxygen Ices at Outer Solar System Temperatures.” This study explores the vapor pressures of ammonia and oxygen ices at very low temperatures, indicating they are more stable than previously believed, potentially lasting longer and existing in greater quantities on airless bodies in the outer solar system.
Associate professor Mark Loeffler has been awarded at NASA Solar System Workings award titled: The Stability of Organosulfur and Organic Compounds in Solar System Ices. The project investigates how stable amino acids and astrophysically-relevant organosulfur compounds may be in icy environments found on extraterrestrial surfaces. The results will have implication for what compounds scientists may be likely to find when observing surfaces of icy moons that have been chemically altered over time. The award is for $458K over 3 years.