Karlis Kaufmanis Scholarship in Astronomy
Astronomy Picture of the Day

Supports promising students majoring in Astronomy. Named in honor of Professor Karlis Kaufmanis, who joined the University as a visiting lecturer in 1961 and became an associate professor in 1963. He held the rank of full professor from 1970 until his retirement in 1978.

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2023 Kaufmans Scholarship in Astronomy

Hayden Da Silva and Joshua Godar, Kaufmanis Scholarship recipients

Hayden Da Silva

Joshua Godar ​​
Joshua is originally from Madison Wisconsin, and his area of research interest is in dark matter and gravitational waves. 

 

 

 

2022 Kaufmans Scholarship in Astronomy

2022 Kaufmanis Scholarship: Alyssa Burton, Noel Fiest, Kate Hildebrandt

Alyssa Burton
Alyssa is originally from Lake Linden, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula.  "I plan to use my scholarship for tuition next fall to help lower my out-of-state tuition cost.  I have not begun research at the University of Minnesota yet but hope to become involved soon.  One area I am interested in researching is planetary geoscience.  At this time, I am majoring in Astrophysics and considering adding an Earth Science major.  Planetary geoscience would combine these two interests of mine.  Another research area of interest would be to study the aurorae of Earth and other planets in the solar system. Although I have not yet researched at the University of Minnesota, I have assisted with research performed at Michigan Technological University.  During the summers of 2019 and 2021, I worked at Michigan Technological University as an undergraduate research assistant in the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science.  I was a lab and field assistant in the Forest Ecology Lab.  I also assisted a graduate student with his assessment of soil carbon fractions."

Noelle Feist
Noelle is originally from Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Kate Hildebrandt
Kate is originally from Maple Grove, Minnesota. "This scholarship will help me focus on my studies in my last year of undergrad. I work on the detector team in the SmallSat research lab with Prof. Lindsay Glesener."

 

2021 Kaufmans Scholarship in Astronomy

Kaufmanis Scholarship

Alina Kaliszewski:

Alina is from Rochester, Minnesota. "This scholarship will help ease the financial stress of college, allowing me to focus more fully on academics. This will make it significantly easier for me to finish my bachelor’s degree and go on to graduate school to start working on my PhD, without having to take time off to work." Alina is most interested in the field of cosmology, particularly research on dark matter and the expansion of the universe. 

Cole Panzer:

Cole is from Waupun, Wisconsin. He plans to use the scholarship to pay for college education expenses (tuition, books, fees, etc.) "I have yet to jump into much research. However, I will be joining a research group with Professor Michael Coughlin and his team at LIGO to help with data analysis and programming. Outside of that, I am also a part of the Small Satelite Research Laboratory at UMN on the Detector team. There, I've been helping with the calibration of the detectors that will be used on a CubeSat in the project IMPRESS. As an astrophysics and physics major, I am interested in almost anything space-related; from the search for extraterrestrial life to black holes to gravitational waves. I hope to do research in subjects like these that I have been fascinated by since I was young!"