Space Grant Success Stories

Amanda Gibbons

ASU News catches up with ASCEND student, Amanda Gibbons, who reflects on her journey as an undergraduate student and what lies ahead

Amanda Gibbons, ASU ASCEND team member, talks about her desire to study meteorology, work with climate data, and how she used various offerings from campus life to enhance her academic career. Amanda will be attending the University of Arizona this Fall as a graduate student in Atmospheric Sciences.

Kiera Charley receive Space Grant graduation stole.

ASU Space Grant Intern, Kiera Charley, featured in the ASU News!

Charley recently presented her research at the Arizona NASA Space Grant Statewide Student Research Symposium, titled “A Direct Imaging Search for Substellar Companions around B & A Stars”. Charley will graduate this May from ASU and will continue her education as an astronomy graduate student at the University of Hertfordshire in England.

Astronaut Randy Bresnik at HALO event, Photo Credit: Penny Duran

NASA Space Grant Representatives Attend Artemis Milestone Event

On April 24, Arizona Space Grant students were invited to an exclusive event marking the arrival of the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Gilbert, Arizona. With Gateway as a key element of the NASA-led Artemis missions to enable sustained lunar exploration to pave the way to Mars and beyond, HALO’s arrival marks Gateway’s first major hardware milestone.

Todd Murphey working on robotics with student.

Alumni Highlight! Former intern named Director of Transformative Research, Northwestern University

1995 UA Space Grant Intern, Todd Murphey (right), will help ensure the University is well-positioned to engage in high-impact research across disciplines.

This illustration shows a lower mass star surrounded by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust. The planet formation process would cause gaps, not shown in this illustration, to appear in the disk. The streams near the center show how matter from the disk is still falling onto the star.

Space Grant Intern Advisor, Penny Duran, Publishes Article in UA News!

Penny is a University of Arizona Junior in Physics, and is completing her second year as a science writing intern, mentored by Daniel Stolte, at the UA News.

Isabella Olin stands in front of her digital poster at AAS conference

Space Grant Intern receives honorable mention at AAS 2025

Isabella Olin, a U of A Space Grant Intern, received 1 of 8 Chambliss undergraduate honorable mentions out of 450 poster presentations at the American Astronomical Society meeting on January 16, 2025.

Zarah Brown sits in front of elementary school classroom

Space Grant Alum, Zarah Brown, at Sunrise Drive Elementary School

Zarah Brown was a University of Arizona Space Grant Fellow during academic year 2020-2022 and is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Lunar and Planetary Lab.

Shae Henley with one of the students at Erickson Elementary's Math and Science Night

Space Grant Fellows engage the community in STEM.

Shae Henley, UofA Space Grant Fellow, inspires elementary students through a series of outreach projects at Math and Science Night.

Dora Elalaoui-Pinedo at her Lunar and Planetary Laboratory workspace

UA student investigates the origins of mysterious holes on Mars

“Dora Elalaoui-Pinedo has been studying the enigmatic pits in the northern polar regions of Mars using images taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, a high-resolution camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter”.