Support Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium
Space Grant scholars are among the brightest, most talented, and highly motivated students in Washington. They major in fields from astronomy to zoology, and many continue on for their doctoral degrees. We proudly introduce a few of our alumni and current students.
Alysha Reinard '97|Hans-Peter Marshall '99|Devin Kipp '03|Noah Giansiracusa '06
Alysha Reinard '97
Today Alysha Reinard '97 conducts research on solar physics as a post-doctoral fellow with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., trying to solve the mystery of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)—large explosions from the sun's surface that can disrupt power grids or knock out satellites, and even endanger astronauts.
The Kelso High graduate feels so at home in the nation's capitol it's hard to imagine what her life would have been like without a college education.
Alysha's parents never expected their children to attend college and did not have the means to pay for it, so when she applied to the University of Washington, Alysha also applied for scholarships. She received a four-year scholarship through the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium, which provided her with full tuition, room and board, making her dreams of a science education a reality.
"At the time I didn't have a full understanding of the whole financial situation," Alysha says. "I was hoping to get a scholarship, and a little worried I wouldn't get one. Today the idea of having not gotten a scholarship scares me much more than it did then. . . .
"The scholarship meant everything to me. I'm really not sure if I would have been able to go to college without it, and obviously I've benefited greatly from it."
Supported by a generous Space Grant donation from astronaut Bonnie Dunbar, she spent the summer prior to her freshman year researching microbursts, a phenomenon which occurs in auroras. The physics major continued her research project throughout her undergraduate years, eventually publishing a paper and presenting her work at two national meetings. Those experiences prepared her well for graduate school
In 2002, she completed her doctorate in Space and Planetary Physics at the University of Michigan. The scholarship support she received as undergraduate made a real difference for Alysha and for her future.
Hans-Peter Marshall '99
 | | Hans-Peter Marshall taking snowpack stratigraphy measurements in Davos, Switzerland, where he was a visiting doctoral student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) in 2004. |
Finishing his freshman year, Hans-Peter Marshall knew he liked science and the outdoors, but it took Space Grant's Summer Undergraduate Research Program to bring the two together.
"I didn't even know what glaciology was," says Marshall. But after working with UW Professors Ed Waddington and Howard Conway on avalanche physics at Snoqualmie Pass and glaciology in the Olympics, he was hooked on the study of ice and snow.
Since then, his research has twice taken him to Antarctica. On his second trip, he also partnered with a Colorado middle school through the National Science Foundation's K-12 Engineering Outreach Fellowship Program, teaching math and science and illustrating the usefulness of both through his research.
As a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Hans-Peter received a NASA Earth Systems graduate fellowship and worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). He credits his Space Grant experience with leading directly to his graduate research on the NASA Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) — a multi-sensor, multi-scale experiment that focuses on extending a local-scale understanding of water fluxes, storage, and transformations to regional and global scales.
"I don't know if I would be here if I hadn't gotten involved with research as an undergraduate," he says. Using math and physics in the field was revelation. "I saw where they could be applied and they became tools to me."
As part of his CLPX work, Hans-Peter redesigned special high frequency radar equipment for detecting the structure and liquid water equivalent of snow into a portable model that also has applications in locating land mines.
Last winter, he completed his civil engineering doctorate and received three-year grants from NASA to continue his research into snow and glacier hydrology, and its applications in space exploration.
Devin Kipp '03
Devin Kipp, an '03 alumnus, began working with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars laboratory last August.
"It's just amazing," he says. He is part of a team working on the entry, descent and landing technology for a Mars rover that will launch in 2009.
The spacecraft has eight thrusters. "We'll turn the thrusters to slow to a hover about 20 meters above the surface while we lower the rover beneath us on a bridle," he says.
"At that point, the craft will descend slowly and set the rover gently on the surface before we cut the bridle and fly the rest of the spacecraft to a safe distance. The whole thing has to be automated because the light travel time is too long to control it from here."
Devin received his master's degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology where he worked with the Space Systems Design Laboratory's planetary exploration group on Mars atmospheric entry vehicles.
He says he's lucky to be able to work on a project, see it launch and land, all within his first five years with NASA.
Devin grew up in the Renton area and has always had a passion for space. As a kid, he once looked up at the stars so much that he fell over on his head trying to take in more of the sky — a story his mother still enjoys sharing.
Without his Space Grant scholarship and its Summer Undergraduate Research Program, Devin's family might have been telling different stories about his dreams and his career.
"I think I probably would have gone to community college for two years, then transferred in," he says. "The scholarship gave me a chance to focus on schoolwork and get involved with research."
That experience taught him how the research community works and how industry works. "The research opportunities were the big things that made a difference," he says.
Noah Giansiracusa '06
Before Noah Giansiracusa '06 ever took a class at the University of Washington, he was introduced to research through a project with the Space Grant Summer Undergraduate Research Program.
Now he is headed to Brown University to pursue a graduate degree in mathematics, building on interests he developed that first summer.
As an incoming freshman, Noah worked with Physics Professor Gerald Seidler. The team's goal was to advance the knowledge of polymer foam by studying the relationship between its microstructure and its elastic properties. Noah's research involved developing software to help the group reach its goals.
He credits Professor Seidler with sparking his interest in information theory, a topic he continued to explore under the guidance of Mathematics Professor James Morrow.
"We started by studying information theory and coding theory with the hopes of better understanding the mathematics underlying the physics research I've been doing with Professor Seidler," he says. "However, we weren't obligated to follow a fixed curriculum so we segued into various related and unrelated fields of mathematics."
The result was a growing fascination with algebraic geometry—an abstract field with potential impacts on computer efficiency, and one that he now plans to focus on in graduate school.
The recipient of a Space Grant/Sigurd Olsen Endowed Scholarship, Noah was initially home-schooled, but entered the public school system his freshman year, enrolling at Sammamish High School in Bellevue. During his junior and senior years, he participated in the Running Start program, taking classes at Bellevue Community College, focusing mainly on math and physics. He was one of 32 American high school students selected to take part in the Russian-American Internet Physics Olympiad. Despite his class load, he managed to compete on the cross country and track teams, serving as captain of both his senior year. He also plays the piano and dabbles in composition.
The Space Grant scholarship gave Noah confidence as he made the transition to a new place, he says, and provided the encouragement to do research, something he would not have otherwise sought out. In 2003, he won a prestigious national Goldwater Scholarship, in part due to his research experiences.
After earning his doctorate, Noah plans to teach at the university level, bringing the same kind of enthusiasm and mentoring that he experienced at the University of Washington into his own classes.
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