Spotlight Iowa City: Grad student gets NASA experience
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Min Huang took experimenting to new heights — literally — when she participated in a NASA science program this past summer.
Huang, a UI graduate student in chemical engineering and a native of China, was one of the 29 accepted for the NASA program out of thousands of students from across the United States for the Airborne Science Program.
Earlier this summer, Huang traveled to Irvine, Calif., for the six-week program.
“NASA wants to let everyone know that there are efforts to train the next generation of scientists,” she said.
Huang received a B.A. in environmental engineering at Southeast University in her hometown of Nanjing, China. In 2006, Huang met Greg Carmichael, an associate dean of graduate programs and research in the UI College of Engineering, who told her about graduate engineering programs.
Carmichael said he was immediately impressed with Huang and encouraged her to apply.
“Huang is highly motivated, dedicated, and is an excellent student,” he said.
Huang moved to Iowa City two years ago and is now working toward a master’s in chemical engineering. She plans on further education afterwards.
“[The program] allowed us to get in touch with the instruments and get firsthand experience,” Huang said.
One key goal of the NASA’s Airborne Science Program is to prepare the next generation of airborne scientists by giving them hands-on experience in various environmental fields.
Students split their time between Irvine and NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., conducting experiments using different methods and instruments to measure atmospheric chemistry, take field samples, and collect and analyze data in the laboratory.
Huang primarily participated in mid-flight experiments on NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory. Students used various instruments to measure the different chemical compounds in the atmosphere. In this experiment, students were able to see what exactly was in the atmosphere from the ground up to the height of the Sierra Mountains.
“[The program] showed all the students what NASA usually does and what a real experiment might look like,” Huang said.
Students also used simulator instruments and remote sensing tools to analyze ocean environments, rain cover over agricultural areas, and emission levels over various agricultural enterprises, such as dairy farms and almond groves.
The program targets rising undergrad students as well as graduate students, said Scott Spak, a UI postdoctoral research scholar at the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research and one of the program’s instructors.
“This program is great for students,” he said. “It allows them to build up capacity and interest.”
This was the first year NASA has sponsored the Airborne Science Program, and Spak said the agency expects it to be an annual event.
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