The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) is honored to announce a new graduate student fellowship dedicated to LASP planetary scientist Dr. Frank J. Crary. The fellowship will award $5,000 to graduate students at CU Boulder who have demonstrated interest in studying the impact of the space environment on planets in our solar system.
Crary’s research focused on understanding planetary magnetospheres. The space environment – which includes magnetic fields and plasmas – plays an important role in various planetary processes, including habitability. Frank received his bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy from the University of California Berkeley in 1991. As a graduate student at CU Boulder, Crary then used Voyager and Galileo data to study Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io and its interaction with magnetospheric plasma. He received his Ph.D. from CU’s Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences Department in 1998.
In 2000, he moved to the University of Michigan for postdoctoral work on the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) instrument, which flew on the Cassini mission to Saturn. He then moved to the Southwest Research Institute, where he became the principal investigator of CAPS and attained the rank of senior research scientist.
In 2012, Crary returned to LASP, where he continued to work on CAPS data analysis and served as a scientist on the MAVEN mission. Throughout his career, he was dedicated to mentoring students and junior colleagues with whom he worked on NASA missions, including Deep Space 1, Cassini, Juno, and MAVEN.
Crary passed away in November 2023.
“Dr. Crary was a leader in understanding the planetary space environment and a dear colleague,” said Fran Bagenal, LASP planetary scientist and chair of the Crary Fellowship Committee. “I am honored to be able to memorialize his contributions through this fellowship, which will help launch the next generation of planetary scientists.”
The fellowships will be awarded to graduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder. Further information on how to apply for or donate to the Crary fellowship can be found at https://lasp.colorado.edu/information/graduate-students/frank-j-crary-endowed-graduate-fellowship/.
-By Willow Reed, Sr. Communications Specialist
Founded a decade before NASA, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder (LASP) is revolutionizing human understanding of the cosmos. LASP is deeply committed to inspiring and educating the next generation of space explorers. From the first exploratory rocket measurements of Earth’s upper atmosphere to trailblazing observations of every planet in the solar system, LASP continues to build on its remarkable history with a nearly $1 billion portfolio of new research and engineering programs.
