University of North Dakota, United States
I’m really big into rocketry, like building really large, 15-foot-tall, solid-fuel rockets. Recently we formed a team of about 60 students, and we are determined to build a liquid-fuel rocket that is going to reach space. It’s a three-year project that we just started in January. I also direct professional development workshops for K-12 teachers on the physics, astronomy, and science of energy, and go into classrooms and museums to present planetarium shows. Now I am directing a Future City competition for North Dakota as part of a national competition. The response from teachers and kids to science and making engineering devices is pretty powerful. I hope these efforts will help students find a life-long affinity for science. For DUNE, I run numerical supernova simulations and test to what extent future supernovae will be detected. Explosions of stars, called Type-II supernovae, are thought to emit neutrinos. I’m also working with a group of researchers to develop a charged-particle tracking display for education purposes. We are making the analysis of particle tracks simpler so that teachers and students can better understand them. I like the breadth of things that you can do on DUNE. There are so many ways you can participate and be involved in such a big project.