NASA/GSFC Academy Fact Sheet
Over the past four years, the following states have been represented at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Academy:
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Rocky Mountains, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia
Each summer, the Academy Research Associates (RAs) work on projects funded by a special allocation of money set aside for new, creative, and innovative research called the DirectorÕs Discretionary Fund (DDF). At the conclusion of each year, an annual report is published detailing the year's progress and it is distributed around GSFC and to NASA Headquarters and other NASA Centers. In 1994 and 1995, all the RAs were listed along with a description of the Academy program in the back of the report. The 1996 year end report has not been published yet.
The following RAs were listed as co-authors on the paper (either as one of the principal investigators (PI), co-investigator, collaborator, contributor, or in-house team member)...
... and the following RAs were mentioned elsewhere in the DDF Annual Report:
There are many ways in which some alumni have continued to interact with GSFC after the Academy
Continuing Research with PI
In addition to returning to GSFC, the following RAs have had significant interaction with other NASA Centers or NASA contractors:
The following is a sample of some of the ways in which RAs have gone back to interact with their Space Grant offices:
Random Quotes about the Academy Experience:
The Academy has given me confidence in myself and my direction.
Karen Bottom (Louisiana)
Constantly being surrounded by such great intelligence and ingenuity canÕt help but affect you and raise your expectations and motivation.
Grant Bromhal (West Virginia)
Personally, NASA Academy has shown me, more than any other experience in my life, the value of initiative. I did learn a lot about the space program, but that is only data and data becomes obsolete with time. Out speakers were 40 success stories all joined by their passion for their dreams and their devotion to making them reality. You only get to see a few of those in a lifetime. We had a lot and I now understand and share their visions, but it is time to forge my own vision. Academy showed me a lot of ways of being assertive and of achieving. Life, after all, is what you make of it.
Alberto Gay (Puerto Rico)
My research on radar applications with Paul [Lowman] was one of the real technical foundations for the remote sensing work which I am doing now on land value assessments in urban areas using satellite imagery.
Andrew Hoppin (Rhode Island)
My wife Anna changed her major to Aerospace Engineering and won a Graduate Student Researchers Program fellowship as a direct result of my participation in the NASA Academy.
David Howard (Pennsylvania)
The NASA Academy experience has had a profound impact on my career and my life. It is fundamentally responsible for my choice to change from Mechanical Engineering to Aerospace Engineering and influenced my choice of the University of Colorado. The Academy not only made me decide to change my academic focus, it also gave me some very powerful tools to be successful in my chosen field.
Mike Moreau (Vermont)
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