Three students fromWest Virginia Universitywill have the experience of a lifetime this summer as part of the NASA Academy, the nations top internship program for the space program and aerospace industry.
Emily Calandrelli of Morgantown; Mehran Mohebbi, a native of Iran who is now a U.S. citizen; and Alan Talbott, of Walkersville, Md., will spend the summer conducting research under NASA scientists, working with students from around the nation and traveling to NASA centers for meetings and tours.
No other university this year had as many students chosen for the elite program as WVU , said Majid Jaraiedi, director of the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, which announced the selections recently.
We are very proud to have three students selected for this program,said Jaraiedi,and excited about the educational and career opportunities that this experience will provide for them.
The consortium, headquartered in WVU s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, also awarded numerous other NASA internships and research fellowships to students from that college and from the Universitys Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
Calandrelli, Mohebbi and Talbott are all mechanical and aerospace engineering majors at WVU . The students were selected on the basis of their grades, recommendations and applications.
Students who have participated in this program say that the opportunities for learning and networking are just amazing,Calandrelli said.They also say that the pace is intense and that we wont get much sleep. As an engineering major, Im used to being busy, so that doesnt scare me.
Earlier this year, Calandrelli was selected as WVU s 19th Truman Scholar. She will graduate from WVU in 2010. The Truman Scholarship requires her to spend three years in government service after completing her education. Calandrelli has no doubt that she will complete that service by working for NASA .
She also plans to pursue graduate work in aeronautics/astronautics engineering and hopes to one day work on missions to Mars or to the moon as a NASA engineer. This summer, though, she will be working on a research project at NASA s Ames Research Center involving the development of advanced aerospace materials for rapidly emerging technologies.
Growing up in Iran, Mohebbi knew of West Virginia because his father had earned his degree in mechanical engineering from the WVU Institute of Technology in Montgomerybefore returning to Iran to work and raise his family.
The younger Mohebbi began his college career at Marshall University and then transferred to WVU , where he learned about the NASA Academy from the consortium, which hosts programs each semester to inform students about internships and fellowships available through NASA .
I felt very fortunate to be accepted into the program,said Mohebbi,and I am excited for the opportunity.
He is looking forward to getting into his research project at NASA s Glenn Research Center, which will involve work on the development of filtration methods for lunar dust.
Lunar dust is very different than the dust we encounter on Earth,he said.The particles are very fine, with sharp edges, and therefore are very hazardous to human health. If we are going to develop a base on the moon, we need to come up with filtration systems to protect people from it.
Mohebbi said he is not intimidated by the prospect of working with students from schools like Yale, Princeton and MIT at the academy.
WVU students have every bit as much knowledge and preparation as students from anywhere else,he said.
After graduating from WVU in May 2009, Mohebbi hopes to attend graduate school in physics at Princeton or Cal Tech, and to pursue a career as a particle physicist. His dream job would be to work on an extremely large particle accelerator, which is currently under construction on the border of Switzerland and France, with scientists from around the world.
Talbott will not be far from his home this summer while participating in the NASA Academy at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., but he doesnt expect to have much time to spend with friends and family.
Hell be too busy, he said, working on a project that involves analyzing data from one of NASA s geostationary satellites, which orbit the Earth at the same velocity as the planets rotation, thereby constantly gathering data from a certain area.
I have a 300-page book I have to read to prepare for the project,he said.When I get there, I will be given a subsystem of the satellite to analyze. The goal is to try to improve its performance, working under two or three NASA engineers.
Like Calandrelli, Talbott said that he is used to being busy. As a resident assistant in Braxton Tower, where the majority of students are engineering freshmen, his days are taken up not only with his own studies and work, but also with helping students with their academic pursuits and leading a study group there.
Helping freshmen is definitely challenging and time-consuming,he said,but also rewarding.
Talbott will complete his bachelors degrees in another year.
I want to work in the aerospace industry,he said,and to pursue graduate education. I am undecided as of yet about the exact order and manner in which Ill do those things.
Other WVU students who are receiving internships and research fellowships through NASA this year are Elizabeth DeFusco of Cumberland, Md.; Steven Hard of Point Marion, Pa.; Charles W. Kling of Morgantown; Dominic Ludovici of Morgantown; Tristan McQuain of Clarksburg; Nicholas Morris of Morgantown; Sawan Prabhu of Morgantown; David Narkevic of Weston; Daniel Brooks of Parkersburg; Sean Butler of Mount Clare; Gregory Duckett of Harrisburg, Pa.; Gavin Hall of Morgantown; Zachary Merceruio of Martinsburg; Phillip Morgan of Morgantown; Avery Simon of Benwood; Timothy Weadon of Green Bank; Nicholas Weston of Morgantown; Allison Willingham of New Creek; Tristan Wolfe of Westover; Jerry Carr of Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Meagan Hubbell of Haymarket, Va.; Darren Huckaby of Morgantown; Sheila Kazar of Masontown; Jonathan Kweder of Nesquehoning, Pa.; Richard Maxwell of Morgantown; and Lance Walp of Petersburg.