Ethan Och

Jordan graduated in the spring of 2020 from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and minors in physics and English. During her time in undergrad, she was a member of the High-Altitude Ballooning Team and worked mostly on developing a mock-cubesats for the team. She currently is a graduate student at […]

Originally from Buffalo, MN, Ryan Bowers graduated from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics. He participated in multiple MnSGC projects, including high-power rocketry and stratospheric ballooning. During his tenure he helped develop payloads for the solar eclipse in 2017 and maintained many of […]

Thomas worked with the MnSGC’s High-Altitude Ballooning Team at the U of MN – Twin Cities in the spring and summer of 2018. His work had an emphasis on camera systems in a high-altitude environment, focusing on optimizing video quality, memory capabilities, battery life, and post-flight of various small cameras. Through his lab work, he […]

Elise Linna graduated from Augsburg University in the spring of 2018 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics. During her time at Augsburg, Elise participated in various research opportunities and teaching assistantships thanks to the NASA Space Grant. These opportunities included research on Graphene Oxide, assisting in a modern physics lab, and leading a group […]

As an undergraduate, Jack was a member of NASA’s Minnesota Space Grant High-Altitude Ballooning Team. His primary focus was developing a low-cost particulate measuring payload to characterize the particulate content of the atmosphere around 100,000 ft altitude. He also wrote a program to parse APRS data logs from balloon flights and a sensor suite library […]

Akshay began doing research at the University of Minnesota as a high school student through MnSGC’s High-Altitude Ballooning Lab and the Small Satellite (CubeSat) Lab. Akshay originally started working on a project to develop a mathematical model of the relationship between the power produced by a solar cell and the altitude of a solar cell […]

Breanna Keith is originally from Cloquet, Minnesota and is currently a Graduate Research Assistant at Bemidji State University and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. She is pursuing a master’s degree in environmental studies and her academic interests include wetland ecology, environmental toxicology, and natural resource management. Breanna’s proposed research aims to examine the presence […]

Joey Habeck is a former member of NASA’s Minnesota Space Grant High-Altitude Ballooning Team, where he focused on stratospheric aerosol measurements. His Ph.D. dissertation work involved utilizing these data as inputs to simulations of hypersonic flows to study particle-induced boundary layer transition and vehicle surface damage. Joey earned his bachelor’s (2018), master’s (2022), and doctoral […]

Ben graduated in May 2018 with a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He is originally from Adel, Iowa. Ben was an active member of the high-altitude (stratospheric) ballooning team from the fall of 2015 until he graduated. He was a co-lead for the total solar […]

Austin Eiler is from the small town of Markesan, Wisconsin and graduated from the U of MN in 2018 with a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics with a minor in Astrophysics. Austin is interested in rocket propulsion and all things related to aviation. His time with the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium has taught […]

Steven Hauschildt is from Millville, Minnesota, and worked on a masters degree in aquatic biology at Bemidji State University. His project looked at perch growth from hatch through the first several weeks of development and how human inputs to surface water influences this development.

Josh Nelson is from Centerville, Minnesota, and majored in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He was active with both High-Altitude Ballooning Team and the Rocket Team at the U of M throughout his undergraduate career. He now works as a systems engineer at Boeing, supporting interface control for […]

Alec received his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2017. In addition to coursework, he spent three years performing research supported by MN Space Grant on neutrinos with the MINERνA collaboration – an experiment based at Fermilab. After graduation, Alec pursued a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of […]

Emma is a former member of the U of MN – Twin Cities’ Space Grant High-Altitude Ballooning Team and has worked on many different projects. Her of her main focus areas was experimenting with mock-CubeSats to fly on high-altitude balloon missions; she helped to design a mock-P-POD (the deployment method used in near-space to deploy […]

Magaly Perez (on the far right in the photo – Macalester class of 2014) was supported for two consecutive summers by the MnSGC. She worked on a project with co-PI R. Rogers that focused on the preservation of tiny vertebrate fossils in ancient Cretaceous rocks in Montana. Magaly recently completed her master’s degree in the […]

Chris Stauffer is from Cass Lake, MN and recently completed his STEM emphasis associates degree at Leech Lake Tribal College. He has participated in the high-powered rocketry program for three years, and with his help, the team won second place at the First Nation’s Launch twice. Chris has spent two summers working as a summer […]

Austin Heins is from Sioux Falls, SD, and is double major in Physics and Math at Concordia College. He was involved in a research project doing magnetic characterization of iron oxides during the summers of 2015 and 2016. Austin was also part of a team working with the quantum optics activity during the summer of […]

Sadie Libal is from Two Harbors, MN, and defended her Environmental Studies masters thesis at Bemidji State University during the summer of 2017. Her project looked at mercury accumulation in aquatic tree swallow food web of Grand Portage National Monument and how surface water sulfate concentration influences Hg accumulation. Mercury accumulation in Grand Portage was […]