In the Student Spotlight: June 25, 2021

Kudos to these students

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  • In the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science (DAPS), doctoral students Natalie Jones and Christian Tai Udovicic were selected for a fellowship in NASA’s program, Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST). FINESST provides research grants to graduate students working on projects relevant to interests of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
  • Udovicic also was the lead author on the article, “New Constraints on the Lunar Optical Space Weather Rate,” which was accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. The study investigated trends that may be associated with nanophase and microphase iron particles near dated lunar craters.
  • DAPS doctoral student Patrick Tribbett was the lead author on the article, “Titan in Transit: Ultraviolet Stellar Occultation Observations Reveal a Complex Atmospheric Structure” published in The Planetary Science Journal. The study was co-authored by DAPS assistant professor Ty Robinson and worked to understand the interplay between aerosol extinction and ultraviolet molecular opacities surrounding Saturn’s moon Titan.
  • From the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, recent graduate AJ Garnello (lead author), assistant research professor Christina Schädel, Regents’ professor Ted Schuur and Regents’ professor Yiqi Luo co-authored the study, “Projecting permafrost thaw of sub-Arctic tundra with a thermodynamic model calibrated to site measurements.” The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, used seven years of measurements to forecast permafrost thaw out to the year 2100. Depending on how warm air temperatures grow, the model suggested that between five and 13 meters of permafrost could be lost by the end of the century.
  • The Northern Arizona University swimming and diving team earned the Scholar All-America honors presented by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America for maintaining a team cumulative GPA of 3.79. This tied the team for seventh within the association, but leads all of the sports teams within the entire NAU Athletics Department.