Discovery Online

Yingxi Shi, atmospheric sciences

Yingxi Shi, a Ph.D. student, has been selected for the prestigious NASA Earth System Science Fellowship, awarding her $30,000 a year for up to three years.  Shi aims to use the research award to increase knowledge of the role of aerosols in climate change.  She will also develop better aerosol data sets for assimilation into weather and climate models.  The NASA fellowship is for students pursuing graduate degrees in Earth System Science, space science, or related disciplines to ensure the continued study of the Earth as a system.  Shi is from Hangzhou, China.

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ND EPSCoR awardees

The North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ND EPSCoR) recently announced that four UND Ph.D. candidates have been awarded the 2010-2012 Doctoral Dissertation Assistantship (DDA).  The award recipients include:

Anthony Schroeder, biology; for his research to detail the basic morphological and molecular mechanisms involved in the development of Wolffian ducts, the embryonic structures that give rise to the male reproductive tract in birds, mammals and reptiles (advisor: Turk Rhen).  Schroeder is from Danube, Minn.

Gunjan Dhawan, pharmacology, physiology and therapeutics; for her research on the immune responses to aging and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, in the brain and blood.  Her goal is to identify a molecule/drug that can cure, prevent or delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases (advisor: Colin Combs).  She is a native of New Delhi, India.

Blake McCann, biology; for his efforts to use molecular techniques to determine the types of swine (domestic and wild) that have been introduced into the United States and to identify relationships with feral populations (advisor: Rebecca Simmons).

Valeria Stephanova (not pictured), chemistry; for her research titled “Synthesis of Aminophosphines Using Cyclopalladated Complexes” (advisor: Irina Smoliakova).

McCann

Schroeder

Dhawan

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Brian Shiro, space studies

UND space studies graduate student Brian Shiro, a native of Paragould, Ark., now living in Hawaii, was featured in the July 2010 issue of New Scientist for his new venture called “Astronauts4Hire.”  The effort is aimed at training a highly qualified group to become the first scientist-astronauts for hire by researchers who want to launch experiments into space.  The Q&A-style article, titled “One minute with Brian Shiro,” deals with how people like Shiro in the world of commercial space exploration are changing what it means to be an astronaut.   Shiro, currently a geophysicist at the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, also has been featured in the October issue of Physics Today and on BBC television.  He is president of Astronauts4Hire.