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2009 John Mather Nobel Scholars

On 2009 July 21, twelve summer interns at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland were awarded John Mather Nobel Scholarships by The Henry Foundation, Inc.

The funding for the scholarships originated in a generous contribution from the John and Jane Mather Foundation for Science and the Arts, which in turn was funded from the award of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics to Dr. Mather.

The awardees were selected by a committee of Directors, and former Directors, of NASA Space Grant College and Fellowship Program state Space Grant consortia.

The award consists in the designation “John Mather Nobel Scholar,” plus a $3000 scientific travel grant over a two year period.

The 2009 John Mather Nobel Scholars are:

  • Andrea Marie Balbas, a rising Senior at Queens College CUNY, in Flushing, NY. Ms. Balbus is working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) on a Lunar Rover.
  • Giuseppe Cataldo, a graduate student in Toulouse, France, working at GSFC to derive mathematical relationships concerning measured optical properties of materials.
  • Henry Alan Fingerhut, a rising Senior at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, who is working at GSFC on quantum mechanical calculations of photo-dissociation of H2 and HD.
  • Emmanuel Fonseca, a rising senior at the Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, who is analysing data from the NASA Swift mission regarding star cluster Omega Centauri.
  • Keegan Sean McCoy, a rising Senior at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, who is developing an optical test plan for parts of the James Webb Space Telescope.
  • Marc Neveu, a rising Senior at the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace in Toulouse, France. At GSFC, he is working on methane measurements on Mars.
  • Kyle Aaron Norman, a rising Senior at the University of Colorado at Boulder, CO, who is working at GSFC toward the detection of gravitational waves on the LISA mission.
  • Thomas Alexander Pavlak, a graduate student at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, who is working at GSFC on projects related to the monitoring of spacecraft.
  • Benjamin Joseph Scaralia, a rising Senior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, who is working at GSFC on quantum chemistry.
  • Svetlana Shkolyar, a graduate student at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, who is working at GSFC on both science and public outreach and education.
  • Eric Michael Timmons, a rising Senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, who is working at GSFC on the James Webb Space Telescope.
  • Allison Louise Willingham, a rising Senior at West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, who is working at GSFC designing an instrument to go aboard the Firefly CubeSat.