Emily Bathgate - Photo by Alexandra Jarman
School of the Environment honours graduate Emily Bathgate has been selected as a finalist in the VSSE -NASA Australian Space Prize, giving her the opportunity to realise a life- long dream.
Ms Emily Bathgate is one of only four finalists in the Victorian Space Science Education Centre (VSSE) - NASA Australian Space Prize. Ms Bathgate, who was awarded first class honours in Environmental Science for her 2010 research into “Sub-ice volcanism on Mars”, was selected as the “Geology and Planetary Geology” category winner from among Australia’s most talented students.
Bathgate will spend 10 weeks working with a NASA scientist or engineer as part of the NASA Academy Program in 2011 if she wins the overall prize, to be announced in early March.
“I am extremely excited and humbled having won my category, and I am very much looking forward to the possibility of working at NASA... I have always dreamed of being involved with space exploration, which I hope to make my career. The opportunity to study at the NASA Space Academy is the first step toward the realisation of this dream,” she said.
The VSSEC reported that the students selected are “an example of the quality research being conducted in Australian universities, and the diversity of space science and engineering.”
Ms Bathgate, who was supervised by Dr Graziella Caprarelli from the School of the Environment, was also the recipient of a NSW Geological Society of Australia prize for her Honours thesis in 2010. The results of her research were geologically significant and may help to determine the existence of an ancient Martian ocean.
Read about the outcome of Emily’s pursuit to study at NASA Space Academy .
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