2014 Rodger Doxsey Travel Prize Results Are In!
Gina Brissenden American Astronomical Society (AAS)
The Rodger Doxsey Travel Prize — established through the support of his father, John Doxsey, and other friends, family, and colleagues — provides graduate students and postdocs within one year of receiving or receipt of their PhD a monetary prize to enable the oral presentation of their dissertation research at a winter meeting of the AAS. The first awards were made for the 217th AAS meeting in Seattle, Washington, in January 2011.
More than 130 dissertation abstracts were received for the upcoming 223rd AAS meeting in Washington, DC, and nearly 80% of them were entered into the 2014 Doxsey Prize competition. Choosing only a small number of these to win the prize from among so many worthy applications was not easy.
The judges selected 10 Doxsey Prize winners and 4 honorable mentions. All will receive complimentary registration for the DC meeting. The prize winners will also receive a modest stipend to help pay their travel expenses. Winners and honorable mentions came from a diverse group of institutions and geographical locations.
Following are the 2014 Doxsey Prize winners and honorable mentions — please tell them congratulations if you see them at the meeting!
Winners (PhD Institution)
- Edmond Cheung (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz)
- Bart Dunlap (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
- Courtney Epstein (Ohio State Univ.)
- Chat Hull (Univ. of California, Berkeley)
- Jedidah Isler (Yale Univ.)
- John Jardel (Univ. of Texas)
- Jamie Lomax (Univ. of Denver)
- Ferah Munshi (Univ. of Washington)
- Timothy Rodigas (Univ. of Arizona)
- Dan Sirbu (Princeton Univ.)
Honorable Mentions (PhD Institution)
- Stacey Alberts (Univ. of Massachusetts)
- Katherine Follette (Univ. of Arizona)
- Michael Pagano (Arizona State Univ.)
- Chalence Safranek-Shrader (Univ. of Texas, Austin)
Much gratitude goes out to this year’s volunteer Doxsey Prize Judges for their earnest efforts:
- Jennifer Bartlett, US Naval Observatory
- Jennifer Hoffman, Univ. of Denver
- Djazia Ladjal, Univ. of Denver
- Dan Schwartz, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
- David Silva, AURA/NRAO
- Jay Strader, Michigan State Univ.