--Ming-Ying Wei (mwei@hq.nasa.gov), NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546
The review of the applications to the NASA 1998 Earth System Science Graduate Student Fellowship Program is complete. A total of 234 applications were received by the Office of Earth Science at NASA Headquarters in response to the announcement released in December, 1997. In all, over 86 universities and educational institutions from 40 states were represented. They represent 33 countries, however, they are all currently accepted/enrolled as full-time M.S. and Ph.D. graduate students at one of the 86 represented universities.
The applications were evaluated through a two-step peer review process: first through mail/panel review, and then by evaluation of a panel composed of members of academic institutions and research organizations, and representatives from the Educational Affairs Office and the Office of Earth Science at NASA Headquarters.
A total of 51 new students have been identified to receive the fellowships this year, pending acceptance by each applicant and the individual's institution. The purpose of the Fellowship Program is to train a pool of highly qualified scientists to help analyze and interpret the wealth of data generated by the Office of Earth Science programs. NASA understands that the future of Earth science rests with today's students, who will be tomorrow's scientists. Financial support for pursuing an advanced education obviously plays a vital role in securing the necessary talent to further Earth system science objectives. See list on pages 24-25.
Fellowships are given for an initial 1-year term and may be renewed annually for up to 3 years, based on satisfactory progress as reflected in academic performance and evaluations made by faculty advisors. The amount of the award is $20,000 per annum, which may be used to defray living expenses, tuition, fees, and other educational expenses. An additional $2,000 may be requested by the faculty advisor to support the student's research. Students receiving these stipends must not receive other Federal funding.
The names and affiliations of the recipients identified for this year and the titles of their proposals are given on pages 24-25 and at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/ese/nra/archive/1998_ESS_Winners.html. An announcement for the 1999-2000 Fellowships will be released in December 1998, and the deadline for submission of new applications to NASA is March 15, 1999.
Additional information about this program may be obtained from Dr. Ming-Ying Wei, Code YO, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546.
| PI Name | Organization | Proposal Title | Advisor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sharon L. Barker | Michigan Technological University | Temporal Analysis of Volcanic Aerosol and Ash Transport | Gregg J. Bluth |
| Dennis J. Barket | Purdue University | Development, Evaluation, and Application of a Fast Time Response Mass Spectrometric Model for Quantitative Monitoring of Tropospheric Ozone Precursors | Paul B. Shepson |
| Jeffrey B. Basara | University of Oklahoma | Investigation of Land-Atmosphere Interactions Using the Oklahoma Mesonet | Kenneth C. Crawford |
| Peter Colarco | University of Colorado Boulder | Comparisons of Three-Dimensional General Circulation Model Simulations of the Desert Aerosol Life Cycle with Satellite Observations | Owen B. Toon |
| Joseph Craine | University of California Berkeley | Aboveground and Belowground Plant Species Functional Traits and their Relation to Ecosystem Functioning | Francis S. Chapin |
| Richard I. Cullather | University of Colorado Boulder | Atmospheric Circulation and Regional Sea Ice Sensitivity in the Arctic | Amanda Lynch |
| Sarah Das | Pennsylvania State University | Integrated Satellite, Model, and Field-Based Studies of Controls on the Extent of Surface Melting in Antarctica: Long-Term Climate Variability and Mass Balance Implications | Richard Alley |
| Alex J. DeCaria | University of Maryland College Park | Convective Effects on Tropospheric Ozone Chemistry Studied with a Coupled Cloud/Chemistry Model | Kenneth E. Pickering |
| Diana M. Derubertis | University of California Berkeley | Regional Changes in Extreme Event Frequencies Within the United States | Orman E. Granger |
| Julianna E. Fessenden | University of California San Diego | Biospheric Influence on Atmospheric CO2, Viewed from the Sigma 18O Signature | Martin Wahlen |
| Karen E. Fisher | Cornell University | Volumetric Assessment of Factors Governing Seasonal and Interannual Fluxes of Phytoplankton from Georges Bank 1994 - 1998 and Application to SeaWiFS Data for New Production Calculations | Charles H. Greene |
| Tara J. Fortin | University of Colorado Boulder | Laboratory Studies of Cirrus Cloud Formation Mechanisms | Margaret A. Tolbert |
| Tammy E. Foster | University of South Florida | Functional Grouping of Plants in Florida Scrub Habitat | Renee J. Brooks |
| Nancy H. F. French | Environ Research Inst of Michigan | The Use of Remote Sensing Methods for Studying Fire-Induced Land Cover Changes in Boreal Forests of Alaska | Charles E. Olson |
| Gregory P. Gerbi | California Institute of Technology | SAR Interferometric Constraints on Ice Cap Mass Balance and Dynamics in Iceland | Mark Simons |
| Nicholas J. Haan | Clark University | Linking Remote Sensing and Social Analysis: Casual Influences of Transitioning Economies on the Miombo Woodland of Tanzania | Billie L. Turner |
| Marshall L. Hayes | Duke University | Varying Eolian Dust Inputs and Spatiotemporal Patterns of Change on Caribbean Coral Reefs | Richard T. Barber |
| Anna M. Hersperger | Harvard University | The Effects of Adjacency Arrangements on Plant Diversity in the Aspen Parkland, Alberta: Field Study and Development of a GIS Model for Land-Cover Change | Richard T. T. Forman |
| Christina L. Holland | University of South Florida | El Niño/Southern Oscillation in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current | Gary T. Mitchum |
| Teresa A. Holloway | Princeton University | Transboundary Air Pollution in Asia | Hiram Levy |
| Pannirselvam Kanagaratnam | University of Kansas | Development of Radar System for Accumulation Measurements | Sivaprasad Gogineni |
| Theodore A. Kennedy | University of Minnesota | The Impacts of a Salt Cedar (Tamarix Ramosissima) Invasion on Communities, Ecosystem Processes, and Ecosystem Services in Desert Riparian Woodlands | Shahid Naeem |
| Ray Klimmek | University of Arizona | Synthetic Lahar Hazard Modeling Using Orbital Dem Data | Charles E. Glass |
| Paul S. Laris | Clark University | Identifying the Land-Management Institutions and Landscape Patterns Governing Savanna Fire Regimes in Mali | Billie L. Turner |
| Alejandro Leon | University of Arizona | Ecosystem Degradation and Household Vulnerability in the Semi-Arid Region of Chile | Charles F. Hutchinson |
| Alan P. Leonardi | Florida State University | Dynamics and Variability of the North Hawaiian Ridge Current from Satellite Altimetry and an Eddy Resolving General Circulation Model James J. O'Brien | |
| Laura T. Letendre | University of Pennsylvania | Development of a Time-Resolved Visible and Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Technique for Measuring Resonance Raman Cross Sections Needed for Remote Sensing Measurements | Hai-Lung Dai |
| Xiang Li | University of Alabama Huntsville | Impact of Aerosols on the Clear Sky Shortwave Radiative Fluxes Over Biomass Burning Regions in South America | Roland M. Welch |
| John Lin | Harvard University | Biological and Physical Controls on Evapotranspiration in a Mid-Latitude Forest | Steven C. Wofsy |
| Marc Linderman | University of Wisconsin Madison | Mapping the Spatial Distribution of Bamboo in a Giant Panda Reserve: A Study of the Relationship of Understory Vegetation Percent Cover to Artificial Neural Network Activation Levels | Jianguo (Jack) Liu |
| Kelly MacGregor | University of California Santa Cruz | Erosion and Sediment Fluxes by Valley Glaciers through the Climate Cycle: Links Between Alpine Landscape Evolution and Climate | Robert S. Anderson |
| Sherri A. Mason | University of Montana | Modeling Novel FT-IR Spectroscopic Measurements of Oxygenated Hydrocarbon Levels From Biomass Combustion Emissions | Richard J. Field |
| Timothy L. Masterlark | University of Wisconsin Madison | Poroelastic Analysis of Coseismic and Postseismic Deformation Associated with the 1992 Landers, California Earthquake | Herbert F. Wang |
| Emilio Mayorga | University of Washington | Coupling Land-Surface and Riverine Water and Carbon Cycles in the Amazon Basin: Development of a Multi-Scale Model Driven by Remote Sensing Observations | Jeffrey E. Richey |
| Megan McGroddy | University of California Berkeley | Phosphorus Cycling Across a Land Use Gradient on Two Soil Textures in a Lowland Tropical Forest, In the State of Para, Brazil | Whendee Silver |
| Gustavo de Hess Negreiros | University of Washington | Modeling the Flammability of Brazillian Amazon Forests at the Forest-Savanna Ecotone | Thomas M. Hinckley |
| Gregory Okin | California Institute of Technology | Crucial Desertification Processes for Monitoring Arid Lands: A Remote Sensing Study | Bruce Murray |
| Karen R. Plaut | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Two-Way Surface Water-Groundwater Interaction: Spatial Organization of Hydrologic Processes Over Complex Terrain | Dara Entekhabi |
| Mitchell Plummer | New Mexico Inst of Mining & Techlgy | Combined Simulation of Alpine Glaciers and Closed-Basin Lakes: The key to Determining the Long-Term Temperature and Precipation Changes Driving Fluctuations in the Alpine Glaciers | Fred Phillips |
| Sara A. Rauscher | University of Wisconsin Madison | Scale-Dependent Climate Change Due to Deforestation in Amazonia | Waltraud Brinkmann |
| Andrew L. Rice | University of California Irvine | Sigma D Measurement of Methane and Molecular Hydrogen in the Atmosphere | Ralph J. Cicerone |
| Matthew Rodell | University of Texas Austin | Estimating Changes in Continental Water Storage from Satellite Observations of the Time Dependent Gravity Field | James S. Famiglietti |
| Tapio Schneider | Princeton University | The Influence of the Troposphere's Static Stability on Climate Sensitivity | Isaac M. Held |
| Harper Simmons | Florida State University | Nonlinear Exchange Processes Between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean | Doron Nof |
| James B. Simpas | Pennsylvania State University | Studies of OH and HO2 in the Presence of Cirrus Clouds Near the Tropopause | William H. Brune |
| Colm Sweeney | Columbia University | Variability of Biogeochemical Regimes in the Ross Sea: An Analysis Using High Resolution Sea Surface Measurements | Taro Takahashi |
| Michael A. Taylor | University of Maryland College Park | The Effect of Warm Tropical Atlantic SST on Early Season Caribbean Rainfall | Anandu Vernekar |
| Jonathan A. Warrick | University of California Santa Barbara | Mass Balance of Sediment Transport Across Coastal Margin Filters at the Base of the Transverse Ranges, CA | Leal A. K. Mertes |
| Sheryl Wilhelm | University of Washington | Combined Use of Remote Sensing and Biogeochemical Modeling to Estimate Primary Production and Carbon Gas Emissions on the Amazon River Floodplain: Establishing a Baseline for Assessment of Human Impacts | Jeffrey E. Richey |
| Andrew T. Wittenberg | Princeton University | Response of ENSO to Modulations in Tropical Climate | George H. Philander |
| Troy G. Wood | Stanford University | Global Lightning Detection and Location Using Long Range VLF Sferic Measurements | Umran S. Inan |