The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation has selected University of Colorado at Boulder senior Timothy J. Rood to receive a $7,500 scholarship, one of only 15 given to college science and engineering students nationally for the 1997-98 academic year.
Rood, an aerospace engineering major, is doing data analysis for the Solar-Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) orbiting Earth on an unmanned NASA research satellite. He was recognized for his outstanding achievement in academic performance and community service.
The SOLSTICE project has given Rood and others an opportunity to examine the impact of human activity on Earth聮s fragile upper atmosphere using data from the $10 million CU-Boulder ultraviolet spectrometer.
The spectrometer was one of 10 instruments launched on the NASA research satellite from the space shuttle Discovery in 1991. The CU instrument measures the variation of solar ultraviolet radiation in Earth聮s upper atmosphere, which influences a wide variety of chemical processes including the natural production and destruction of stratospheric ozone.
The foundation hopes to strengthen America聮s position in science and technology by awarding scholarships to third- and fourth-year undergraduates and graduate students who have demonstrated exceptional mental ability, self discipline and creative drive in the sciences or engineering.