International prizes for postgraduate researchers in space science and engineering
Two Engineering PhD students at the University of Southampton have been honoured by the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC).
Clemens Rumpf has won the 2014 international OHB-Move an Asteroid contest which challenged university students and young professionals to come up with innovative ways to detect objects approaching Earth, deflect them or devise an early warning system. Clemens, who is researching asteroid deflection, will present his paper at two major conferences in Toronto, Canada. He is supervised by Dr Hugh Lewis and Dr Camilla Colombo in Engineering.
“Sooner or later, we will discover an asteroid that is on a collision course with the Earth. It is therefore important to address and find solutions to the asteroid threat,” he says. “I am glad that I can contribute to this exciting endeavour and I am grateful that the SGAC supports this activity with the ‘Move an Asteroid’ competition.”
Francesca Letizia is a winner of the 2014 SGAC Space Safety Paper competition with the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) and will present her paper at a conference in Germany. She is examining how to model the evolution of space debris. In 2013 Francesca received an Amelia Earhart Fellowship; awards presented each year to 35 outstanding women postgraduate researchers in aerospace science and engineering. She is supervised by Dr Hugh Lewis in Engineering and Professor Peter Atkinson in Geography.