The Awards committee of Hamvention, which organizes the world's largest convention of radio amateurs, has announced that Dr. Frissell has been recognized as the Amateur of the Year, which is considered the highest award in the amateur community. Nathaniel has been a licensed ham since 1998 and operates under the call sign W2NAF. He earned his graduate degrees at Virginia Tech working in the SuperDARN HF radar group and graduated in 2016, going on to take up a postdoctoral position at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). During his student days Nathaniel studied at the world's northenmost campus in Svalbard (UNIS, Norway) and participated in radar builds and repair trips to the Aleutian Islands (Alaska) and McMurdo Station (Antarctica). His research included the discovery of a surprising connection between the occurrence of medium-scale travelling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) and the polar vortex. Nathaniel organizes the annual HamSCI workshop (http://hamsci.org/hamsci2019) that brings together radio professionsals and amateurs to discuss the science of ham radio.

Congratulations, Nathaniel!

The new director of the Center for Space Science and Engineering (Space@VT), Prof. Scott Bailey, is calling on industrial partners, alumni, and all interested parties to consider contributing to the goals of the space program at Virginia Tech by making a Giving Day contribution on Tuesday, March 19, that is targeted as a donation to Space@VT. In his words: 'Giving Day is a one-day fundraising event for all members of Hokie Nation. The goal is to engage our community to advance the mission of the university while raising critical funding to ensure we continue to build upon our foundations to provide big opportunities for our students. As part of Giving Day you have the option to make donations to Space@VT. These donations can help us in a number of ways, but first and foremost to help our students. The funds may be used to broaden their research experiences, support the student’s infrastructure needs, or to support our diversity initiatives. Any donation you are able to make will be very impactful to our center and students. The link to Giving Day is https://givingday.vt.edu/ Select 'College of Engineering' from the left hand menu ('Area of Support'), then 'Space@VT' from the right hand menu ('Fund Designation'). Donations will be accepted starting at noon Tuesday March 19 and for the following 24 hours, though donations outside that period can be made by following instructions on the web page.
We are very grateful for all of your support!
Best regards, Scott

Current freshman are invited to apply to the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Bridge Scholarships of $1,000. Students must be sophomores during the 2019-2020 academic year. Students from any federally recognized minority group in STEM and enrolled full-time in a program of STEM at one of the five Virginia Space Grant member universities are strongly encouraged to apply. The program web site is http://vsgc.odu.edu/stembridge/ For information on eligibility see 'Read More'.

Application deadline: March 11, 2019

The 2019 Boulder Space Weather Summer School (SWSS) will be held July 8 – July 19 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 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 School is targeted at first or second year graduate students who are considering space weather or space physics as a research field and is also open to advanced undergraduate students. For more information see 'Read More'. The application deadline is March 1, 2019

For further information, and instructions on how to apply, see:
https://www2.hao.ucar.edu/SWSS

Undergrad students may apply to participate in an expedition to Greenland in the summer of 2019 to map climatic conditions from these institutions:
• Hampton University
• University of Albany
• University of Michigan
• Virginia Tech University
First priority will be for 3rd and 4th year undergraduates in fields of atmospheric and other geosciencesas as well as sociocultural studies.
For more information see: http://greenland.engin.umich.edu
Application deadline: March 1, 2019
See 'Read More' for VT contact information.

Dr. Federica Marcucci of the Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali (INAF) has announced that the SuperDARN Dome C North (DCN) radar located at Franco-Italian base Concordia, at Dome C (Antarctica), is now in operation and the first data look good. In her words:
'The radar was installed by a team composed by David Biondi - INAF, Alessandro Cirioni, Angelo De Simone, Angelo Olivieri, Andrea Satta and Enrico Simeoli - CNR and with the really fundamental support of Jan Wiid.
I also have the pleasure to mention that the installation was made possible by the hard work of other people belonging to the logistics of Concordia and, in general, to PNRA and IPEV.
Completing the installation of DCE and DCN radars has been really a collaborative effort and I wish to mention the work of Igino Coco and Aurèlie Marchaudon, at the beginning of the project, and of Simona Longo, Stefano Massetti and Giuseppe Pallocchia in most recent years.
I wish also to thank a lot the many of you, and people of your teams, who helped giving valuable advice whenever we asked for.
Finally yet importantly, I wish to pay a tribute to Ermanno and Jean-Paul, the fathers of SuperDARN radars at Dome C.
The Concordia radars were funded by PNRA and INAF from the Italian side and by IPEV and INSU from the French side.

Congratulations to Team Dome C!