Twice as Nice

According to their adviser, Eric J. Jumper, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, graduate students Donald Wittich and Alice Nightingale are two of the seven students in the U.S. who were awarded scholarships from the Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS). This is the second year they have received recognition from the DEPS but the first that Notre Dame was the only university to receive scholarships.

Awarded annually, the purpose of the scholarships is to encourage graduate research in the development and application of directed energy technologies, which includes high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves, for national defense and civil applications. The applicants must be full-time students who are U.S. citizens or have demonstrated interest in becoming citizens. They must also provide details of the research area in directed energy technology they expect to pursue upon graduation.

In addition to the DEPS scholarship, Nightingale won the student paper competition at the 2006 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Plasmadynamics and Laser Conference for her submission “Adaptive-optic Correction of a Regularized Compressible Shear Layer.”