The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides annually more than 50 scholarships to the brightest and most talented college students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.Students can not apply directly themselves. They must be nominated by a Virginia Tech Faculty member.

Eligibility: The student must be U.S. citizen and must be in a STEM major.
https://astronautscholarship.org/assets/astronaut-scholarship-major-fields-of-study.pdf
The student must intend to pursue research or advance their field upon completion of their final degree. Current Sophomore or Juniors (graduating > May 2021)

Faculty Nomination deadline: Thursday, March 5, 2020

The Boulder Space Weather Summer School (SWSS) will be held June 29 – July 10, 2020 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) located in scenic Boulder, Colorado. The SWSS is a comprehensive two-week introduction to the science of space weather: what it is, what it does, and what can be done about it. The SWSS curriculum integrates the fundamental science of the Sun-Earth system with the impacts of space weather, and has a particular emphasis on modeling and forecasting. The School is broadly designed for graduate students who are considering space weather or space physics as a research field, as well as active practitioners from government and industry (for example, space weather forecasters). Admission is also open to advanced undergraduate students. For further information, and instructions on how to apply, see: https://www2.hao.ucar.edu/SWSS

Application deadline: March 1, 2020

The 2020 ISR Summer School will be held July 27 - August 1 in Lowell, Massachusetts. The school provides students with hands-on experience in designing and running experiments at incoherent scatter radar (ISR) facilities. During this summer school, students will have the opportunity to run experiments with the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar and use data from multiple ISR observatories, such as Poker Flat (PFISR), Arecibo, and Jicamarca. The ISR summer school is suitable for graduate and advanced undergraduate students and attendance is limited. For most students attending institutions within the United States, travel, housing and meals will be provided. For post-docs and students outside of the United States, funding will be considered on a case-by-case basis. All students who wish to apply for the ISR summer school must follow the application instructions at the summer school web site: https://amisr.com/school
The deadline for application submission is March 6, 2020.
Notice of acceptance will be sent to participants by March 27, 2020.

The Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) located near Lima, Peru is the venue for a summer school that is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by the Geophysical Institute of Peru. JIREP is an international internship program that is offered to junior/senior undergraduate, and/or first and second year graduate students. The program will cover the travel expenses (to and from Lima) as well as a reasonable stipend. Students with interests in atmospheric and ionospheric science and radar techniques, electronics, RF, instrumentation and computer science are encouraged to apply. If you would like to discuss this possibility with interested VT faculty, contact Dr. Mike Ruohoniemi (mikeruo@vt.edu) or Dr. Jo Baker (bakerjb@vt.edu) or any faculty member in the Space@VT research center listed at http://space.vt.edu/people.html The application deadline is February 20, 2020 and the JIREP web site is https://www.igp.gob.pe/convocatorias/jirep

Users are asked to be aware of possible difficulties with using some of the tools on the VT SuperDARN web site. Kevin and Bharat are carrying out maintenance on core routines (in particular those involving mapping in geomagnetic coordinates) and we ask that you bear with us.

Dr. Erxiao Liu of Hangzhou Dianzi University has been on an academic visit with the VT SuperDARN group for the past year. During this time he has worked on research related to the application of machine learning techniques to space science datasets, in particular to the estimation of the cross polar cap potential using SuperDARN data. He has made presentations and been an active participant in group meetings and activities. His wife Qiong Wang acclimated to life in Blacksburg and his daughter Zhenrui (Sherry) attended local school gaining remarkable proficiency in English. They enjoyed a boisterious (and victorious) Hokie home football game. The photo shows them decked out in Hokie gear on Erxiao's last day in the office; from left to right: Jo, Kevin, Erxiao, Sherry, Qiong, Mike, Bharat, and Shibaji. Erxiao and family now travel home in time for Chinese New Year. We wish them safe travels and much success !

Photo credit: Leon Harding