Year 3 Students
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Jared Lalmansigh
Jared Lalmansingh is a physics major with an astronomy option. When he graduates in May 2011, he will be the first physics major at SC State to graduate with an astronomy option. Jared has participated in a variety of ways under the POCA award. He spent the summer of 2009 as a Tier II intern at Clemson University work with Co-PI Leising. He spent the summer of 2010 at KPNO as a Tier II intern working with Co-PI Howell. After both of these internships he presented posters as the first author at AAS meetings in January 2010 and 2011 respectively. Lalmansingh has also observed on the 4-meter at KPNO with Clemson graduate student E. Bubar and presented at several statewide conferences. Additionally, he has carried out research during the academic year under the guidance of PI Walter.
Eva Nesmith
Eva Nesmith has held summer internships as a POCA Tier I (summer 2009) and Tier II (summer 2010) under the mentorship of Co-PIs Cash and Howell respectively. She also conducted research during the academic year under PI Walter, including a current project to use the RCT to acquire BVR photometery of variable stars from the ground while Kepler is observing them on-orbit. Nesmith has twice presented posters as the AAS meetings (January 2010 and 2011) and the annual Meeting of Astronomers in South Carolina in 2010 and will do so again in March 2011. Ms. Nesmith will graduate as a math major in May 2011. She has been so motivated by the POCA project that she will return to SC State in the fall of 2011 to pursue a second degree, this time as a physics major with an astronomy option. She will continue her research as a Tier II intern at SC State in the summer of 2011.
Alexis Pryor
Alexis Pryor joined the POCA project in October 2009 when she changed her major to physics with the astronomy option. She has received a POCA scholarship since then and was a Tier I summer intern at SC State in the summer of 2010, working with PI Walter on the spectroscopy of RV Tauri stars.
Bryan Pugh
Bryan Pugh is a transfer student from a local junior college. He entered SC State in the fall of 2010 as a sophomore physics major with an astronomy option. He has received a POCA scholarship since he joined the program. Pugh was a Tier I intern in the summer of 2010, working with Co-PI Cash modeling light curves of RV Tauri stars. He was a coauthor on a poster at the AAS meeting in January 2011 and will be a Tier II intern as SC State in the summer of 2011.
Charles Kurgatt
Charles Kurgatt is a physics major who is exploring astronomy as an option. He spent the summer of 2010 as a Tier I student working with PI Walter examining the spectra of RV Tauri and Semi-regular stars. He was a coauthor on a poster presentation at the AAS meeting in January 2011. He is applying to POCA for a Tier II internship in the summer of 2011.
