Awards

Awards

At each Fall AGU meeting, the ASE Section recognizes a small number of student presentations as winners of the Outstanding Student Presentation Award.

2017 Winners

  • Matthew Stanbro (University of Alabama, Huntsville): An event observed as a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF) and a terrestrial electron beam (TEB) by Fermi GBM. Advisor: Michael Briggs
  • Kelcy Brunner (University of Alabama, Huntsville): Investigations in thunderstorm energetics using satellite instrumentation and Monte Carlo simulations. Advisor: Phillip Bitzer
  • Honorable Mentions to Elizabeth DiGangi (University of Oklahoma) and Daile Zhang (University of Arizona)

2016 Winners

  • Vanna Chmielewski (Texas Tech): An Analysis of Small Changes in Environment which Resulted in Diverse Charge Structures on 4 June 2012 in West Texas. Advisor: Eric Bruning
  • Gregory Bowers (UC Santa Cruz): TGF Ground Observations from a Winter Thunderstorm in Japan: First Ground Observations of a Multipulse TGF & Evidence of Neutron Production from a TGF. Advisor: David Smith
  • Honorable Mention to Mohammad Salem (Florida Tech)

2015 Winners

  • Jackson McCormick (Georgia Tech): X-ray Solar Flare Induced Ionospheric Pertrbations Observed by VLF Sferics. Advisor: Morris Cohen
  • Neal Dupree (University of Florida): Oceanic Lightning versus Continental Lightning: VLF Peak Current Discrepancies. Advisor: Robert Moore
  • Honorable Mention to Yen-Jung Wu (National Cheng Kung University), Vanna Chmielewski (Texas Tech), and Manh Tan (University of Florida)

2014 Winners

  • Rasoul Kabirzadeh (Stanford University): Multi-scale 3D simulation of lightning and thunderstorm electrodynamics. Advisor: Umran Inan/Nikolai Lehtinen
  • David Sarria (University Paul Sebatier Toulouse III): Some Spatial and Temporal Properties of Secondary Electrons and Positrons Produced By Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes Derived from Monte-Carlo Simulations. Advisor: Pierre-Louis Blelly.
  • Honorable Mention to Sotiros Mallios (Penn State University), Eric Cramer (Florida Institute of Technology)

2013 Winners

  • Sean Waugh (University of Oklahoma): Balloon-borne electric field and microphysics measurements in the 29-30 May 2012 supercell storm in Oklahoma during DC3. Advisor: Mike Biggerstaff
  • Caitano Da Silva (Penn State): On the vertical structuring of gigantic jets. Advisor: Victor Pasko

 2012 Winners

  • Jianqi Qin (Penn State University): Positive and Negative Sprite Morphology on Lightning Characteristics and Upper Atmospheric Ambient Conditions. Advisor: Victor Pasko
  • Ting Wu (University of Osaka): Discharge height of lightning narrow bipolar events and new observation with phased array radar. Advisor: Zen Kawasaki
  • Honorable Mention to Samaneh Sadighi (Florida Institute of Technology), Caitano da Silva (Penn State University)

2011 Winners

  • Thomas Gjestland (University of Bergen): Are There More TGFs in the RHESSI Data? Advisor: Nikolai Oestgaard
  • Burcu Kosar (Florida Institute of Technology): Sprite Streamer Formation in Sub-Breakdown Conditions from an Ionospheric Disturbance. Advisor: Ningyu Liu
  • Honorable Mention to Manabu Akita (Osaka University)

2010 Winners

  • Sonja Behnke (New Mexico Tech): The life cycle of Redoubt's volcanic lightning storms. Advisor: Ron Thomas
  • Can Liang (Stanford University): Toward a time-domain fractal lightning simulation. Advisor: Umran Inan
  • Jianqi Qin (Penn State): On the inception of streams from sprite halo events produced by lightning discharges with positive and negative polarity. Advisor: Victor Pasko
  • Honorable Mention to Chris Biagi (University of Florida), Wei Xu (Penn State)

2009 Winners

  • Amitabh Nag (University of Florida): Compact intracloud lightning discharges: Conceptual mechanism, modeling, and electrical parameters. Advisor: Vlad Rakov
  • Feng Han (Duke University): Lightning-induced D region disturbances detected by broadband VLF sferics. Advisor: Steve Cummer
  • Sander Nijdam (Eindhoven University of Technology): Laboratory experiments simulating sprites on Earth, Venus, and Jupiter. Advisor:
  • Honorable Mention to Ziad Saleh (Florida Institute of Technology), Allison Silveira (University of Oklahoma), Takeshi Kammae (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

2008 Winners

  • Bryna Hazelton (University of California Santa Cruz): The spectral dependence of TGFs on source distance. Advisor: David Smith
  • Ziad Saleh (Florida Institute of Technology): Properties of the x-ray emission from rocket-triggered and natural lightning as measured by the Thunderstorm Energetic Radiation Array. Advisor: Joe Dwyer
  • Robert Marshall (Stanford University): Elves and associated ionospheric density perturbations due to horizontal in-cloud lightning EMP. Advisor: Umran Inan
  • Honorable Mention to Joseph Howard (University of Florida), Jeremy Riousset (Penn State), Sonja Behnke (New Mexico Tech)

2007 Winners

  • Matt Bailey (Utah State University): Sprite Halos and Associated Lightning Characteristics over South America. Advisor: Mike Taylor
  • Philip Bitzer (University of Alabama Huntsville): Hydrometeor Environments Near Lightning Centroids and the Impact on Initial Breakdown. Advisor: Hugh Christian
  • Brian Grefenstette (University of California Santa Cruz): A Reanalysis of the Time Evolution and Spectroscopy of the BATSE TGFs. Advisor: David Smith
  • Honorable Mention to Thomas Gjesteland (University of Bergen), Jingbo Li (Duke University), Amitabh Nag (University of Florida)

2006 Winners

  • Jason Jerauld (University of Florida): A Natural Downward Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Flash Having Two Positive Strokes Followed by Three or More Negative Strokes. Advisor: Martin Uman
  • Jingbo Li (Duke University): Lightning Processes and Dynamics of Large-scale Optical Emissions in Long Delayed Sprites. Advisor: Steve Cummer
  • Chris Maggio (University of Mississippi): Transient Currents in the Global Electric Circuit Due to CG Lightning. Advisor: Tom Marshall

2005 Winners

  • Morris Cohen (Stanford University): Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes Observed on BATSE/CGRO and ELF/VLF Radio Atmospherics. Advisor: Umran Inan
  • Harold Edens (New Mexico Tech): Combining Lightning Mapping Arrays by Jointly Processing Their Time-of-arrival Measurements. Advisor: Paul Krehbiel
  • Jeremiah Harlin (New Mexico Tech): Lightning Mapping Array Source Powers. Advisor: Paul Krehbiel

2004 Winners

  • Toru Adachi (Tohoku University): Spatial and Temporal Structures of Sprites Observed with the Array Photometer on board of the ROCSAT-2 Satellite. Advisor: Yukuhiro Takahashi.
  • Robert Marshall (Stanford University): High Time Resolution Telescopic Imaging of Fine Structure in Sprites. Advisor: Umran Inan.
  • Robert Olsen III (University of Florida): Leader/Return-stroke-like Processes in the Initial Stage of Rocket-triggered Lightning. Advisor: Vlad Rakov