FULLERTON : NASA Gives Awards to CSUF Scientists

Two Cal State Fullerton researchers have been awarded more than $51,000 in grants by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Physics professor Dorothy S. Woolum has received a NASA grant of $36,500 to continue her study of meteorites as a key to understanding the early evolution of the solar system. With the latest grant, Woolum has received more than $400,000 from NASA for her research.

Management science professor Ronald Suich was awarded a NASA grant of $14,943 to develop a guide to help engineers and managers better assess the cost and reliability factors of components for major projects. With the new award, NASA has given Suich $70,000 for the research, which aims to calculate not only the costs of systems but also the estimated losses if they fail.

A third Fullerton faculty member, Alyce Jackson in the computer science department, has received $27,000 from McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. to develop a verification system for NASA’s space station program. The grant is aimed at developing a way to ensure that computer hardware and software programs that will operate the proposed orbital space station will work together.

Last year, Jackson and her computer science students developed a sophisticated software program to track movements of NASA’s Magellan satellite probe as it maps the surface of Venus.