The Lt. Col. Kenneth Rondo Carson and Virginia Bryan Carson Graduate Fellowship is an endowment established by the estate of Virginia B. Carson, honoring her husband, a former member of the "Flying Tigers," a former member of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff Strategic Air Command, retired master navigator and enthusiast of space exploration. Colonel Carson greatly admired the professionalism and accomplishments of NASA's space program.
LPL graduate alumnus Dr. Gordon Bjoraker (Ph.D. 1985) also provided substantial additional funding to The Carson Fellowship endowment, resulting in an increase in the annual payout of the endowment. Dr. Bjoraker has specialized in the study of the atmospheres of giant planets and brown dwarfs over a 40-year long career at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The Carson Fellowship is awarded to students pursuing degrees in the Department of Planetary Sciences, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, selected on the basis of academic achievement and the promise of further scholarly endeavor.
Year | Student | RESEARCH INTERESTS |
---|---|---|
2025/2026 | Hall, Kylie | Exoplanets |
2025/2026 | Smith, Kayla | Astrobiology, Exoplanets, Planetary Atmospheres |
2024/2025 | No award | |
2023/2024 | No award | |
2022/2023 | Cantillo, David | Small bodies, space situational awareness |
2021/2022 | Daniel, Michael | Planetary surfaces |
2020/2021 | Myers, Sam | Small bodies |
2019/2020 | Walters, Jada | Solar and heliospheric research |
2018/2019 | Palmer, Maureen | Atmosphere of Titan |
2017/2018 | Sharkey, Benjamin | Small bodies of the Solar System |
2016/2017 | Bonnefoy, Léa | Planetary surfaces |
2015/2016 | Hendler, Nathanial | Evolution of Protoplanetary Dust-Disk Sizes |
2014/2015 | Lo, Daniel | Carbon Photochemistry and Escape in the Present-Day Martian Atmosphere |
2013/2014 | Komacek, Thaddeus | The Atmospheric Circulation and Evolution of Close-In Extrasolar Gas Giant Planets |
2012/2013 | Bramson, Ali | Radar Analysis and Theoretical Modeling of the Presence and Preservation of Ice on Mars |
2011/2012 | Muro, Gabriel | Planetary formation |
2010/2011 | Dykhuis, Melissa | Asteroid Family Dynamics in the Inner Main Belt |
2009/2010 | Maleszewski, Chester | Planetary astronomy; KBOs and asteroids |
2008/2009 | Schrader, Devin | The Formation and Alteration of the Renazzo-like Carbonaceous Chondrites |
2007/2008 | Schrader, Devin | The Formation and Alteration of the Renazzo-like Carbonaceous Chondrites |